Riders in the Sky
by Queen of Crystallopia
Summary: (Number Three in the Paint it Black Series) When aliens invade, Earth's mightiest heroes unite again to defend mankind. But the aliens do not come to conquer, they come to take what they need...enhanced individuals. And within the Avengers, they have their pick of the best of them. Which leaves those left behind to put together a rescue unlike any other.
1. Man in Black

**Author's Note:**

 **A few things before starting this fic!**

 **First and foremost, this is the third installment in my Paint it Black series, so if you have not read Paint it Black or Silent Night, this will make a lot of references that may confuse you, so I HIGHLY recommend reading those first! :D**

 **Secondly, this takes place approximately four or five months after the events of Silent Night. As my previous readers already know, I am sort of creating my own canon (starting with after the events of Spiderman: Homecoming and altering a bit from Civil War) with Paint it Black and so on. In continuing this canon of mine (which I have fondly decided to call the CMFU- Crystal's Marvel Fanfiction Universe, yes I realize the end of it is FU and I get great delight in that) I would like to inform you, dear readers, that in this verse of mine, Thor: Ragnarok took place during Paint it Black and Silent Night, and is "canon" in compliance to my two stories. You'll see. ;)**

 **Third, I dedicate this fanfiction and the entirety of my little series to PippinStrange, my beta, and the reason I wrote/am writing these in the first place! Send her lots of love because without her, they would not exist.**

 **Lastly, (until the author's note at the end) I wanted to say that as usual and like its predecessors, this fic's title and the titles of all the chapters are titles of songs. This fic's theme is...drumroll please...JOHNNY CASH. So the title and all the chapters will be Johnny Cash songs.**

 **Without further ado, I give you the third installment in my Paint it Black series: Riders in the Sky**

* * *

 **CHAPTER ONE: Man in Black**

...

 **Peter Parker**

I blink. Once. Twice.

Frowning, brows furrowing together, I glance down at my plate and cautiously scoop up another mouthful with my fork. I take a second bite and chew.

"Well?" Aunt May raises her brows expectantly, hands on her hips. I don't think she notices the small smattering of breadcrumbs dusting her cheek.

I swallow.

"It's...actually…super good," I admit, unable to hide my astonishment. "Like, _really_ good. Are you sure you didn't pay Mrs. Sheldon a few doors down to keep quiet about the fact that she made this?"

May smacks my shoulder, but she's beaming. "You're just saying that."

"I'm really not," I assure her as I stuff my mouth with a huge bite of meatloaf. _Meatloaf_. I had been pretty sure that the universe had declared meatloaf an implement of torture and Aunt May an incurably bad cook. And yet, here I am shoveling her homemade meatloaf into my mouth like my life depends on it.

"Is there more?" I ask hopefully, the last bite crammed against my cheek.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," May scolds sternly, but her lips are curving with satisfaction as she takes my plate back into the kitchen to get me a second serving. "More potatoes?"

"Eh...no thanks," I call after her. Her meatloaf may be the best thing she has ever made by a landslide, but I'm pretty sure those mashed potatoes were made with Elmer's glue.

The hairs on my arm suddenly stand straight up.

My skin begins to prickle, a chill that starts at the base of my neck and skitters down my spine, across my limbs.

My head snaps towards the open door to my bedroom, to the window beyond it, but I can see nothing out of the ordinary.

I stand, unable to remain seated, my senses are _that_ on edge, and pull out my phone. My lock screen is suddenly blowing up with alerts: major news station headlines, government issued warnings, and, as I look at it with growing alarm, several all caps messages from Ned.

 _NYC NEWS CHNL 7: ALIEN ATTACK IN DWNTWN MANHATTAN_

 _ALERT: Remain inside. Take shelter immediately and lock all your windows and doors. This is not a drill._

 _KQR CHNL 2: ALIENS OPEN FIRE, IRONMAN DEFENDS MANHATTAN_

 _Ned: DUDE_

 _Ned: R U THERE?_

 _Ned: ?_

And, the newest message that makes my chest tighten.

 _MJ: Be careful_

I look up from my phone to Aunt May's pale face, her own phone in her hand, the meatloaf forgotten.

"I have to go," I say, steeling myself to argue with her on this. Mr. Stark needs my help, and I'm not going to sit by while aliens start shooting people down.

"I know," May croaks. She seizes me and pulls me into a fierce, almost painful hug that I return, squeezing her carefully back.

"Don't get hurt," she whispers. "Come back as soon as you can."

"I will," I promise with as much confidence as I can project. She doesn't seem to want to let go, so I gently pry her arms off and give her a grin that doesn't meet my eyes. "I got this, don't worry."

"It's my job to worry," May sighs heavily. "It's your job to go save those people. Go on. Be safe."

I rush to my room, throwing on my suit and slipping on my mask in record time, and with a last wave at May, I throw myself out the window.

* * *

 **Natasha Romanov**

The moment I attack the first alien, I know immediately we are in trouble.

Gray skin that is more like thick hide stretched over hard muscles. Sparse black armor, impenetrable to bullets, masks that cover the lower half of their faces. Eyes that are nearly entirely black, save for deep red irises that catch the light, mostly likely used to be able to see better in dark environments.

Eight to ten feet in height, and with lithe bodies I can tell were trained in both stealth and combat. Highly trained.

So trained, I think with narrowed eyes, that this one seems...bored. Distracted. Not fully engaged in this fight.

How rude of it.

I launch myself forward, leaping up to kick off a battered looking SUV, and then I slam the sparking end of my metal baton into the exposed flesh of its neck. My legs hook around its waist, the impact and my weight sending the alien staggering back a couple steps, but I realize instantly that its hide is too thick to be affected by the electricity emanating from my baton. Even though it is locked at the highest fatal setting.

Those red and black eyes lock onto mine.

And I know...somehow I know that it had let me get past its defences. It had let me get close.

Shit.

Faster than I expect, faster than it had shown that it could even move, it grips me by the throat, its vice so tight I don't even have time to gasp for air. Then I am flying back, the base of my spine slamming into a fire hydrant so hard, pain radiates through my entire body before I collapse to the asphalt.

I let out a choked sound, forcing my eyes to follow the alien as it stalks away, the red tipped spines running down its back glinting in the light. The fight had lasted less than thirty seconds.

I am already forgotten. Insignificant.

Gritting my teeth at the insult and the pain, I reach a hand up to my comm. "This is a test."

" _What gives you that impression?"_ grunts Sam.

"These aliens are playing a game," I reply, letting out a near silent groan as I begin to push myself up. "And we are losing. They are just toying with us. Testing the waters."

" _Alright, what do we got? Who are the aliens of the week?_ "

Rhodes has decided to join this party.

" _Not the kind you want to bring home to your mother,_ " quips Rogers in between heavy breaths.

I sit up gingerly, my eyes locked down at the corner where the alien I'd attacked had disappeared to.

" _Is there an alien you_ would _bring home to your mother?"_ asks Stark.

I catch a glimpse of him soaring above, palms aimed down as he releases twin repulsor beams down into the next street over.

" _Thor_ ," at least three voices reply instantly.

" _Woooow_ ," Tony draws out the word, and I wince as I finally make it to my feet. " _I'm not even going to touch that. Barnes, on your six."_

" _I see it."_

" _Nat, what else you got?"_ Rogers' voice has lost any trace of amusement.

"A theory," I roll my shoulders once, pushing past the pain radiating from my lower back as I stalk after my opponent. "Has anyone been able to take one of these bastards down?"

A beat of silence.

Stark is unsurprisingly the first to reply. " _Define down_."

Rogers seems to follow my line of thought. " _They're holding back._ "

" _And still winning_ ," Barnes finishes. " _Like you said, testing us. But for what?"_

I jog to the abandoned intersection, noting the bits of debris and broken glass strewn across the abandoned cars.

The aliens had come out of nowhere. No ship to be seen, in person, or with any of our pieces of technology, and no energy spike implying an interdimensional portal had been opened. One second it had been a sunny evening in downtown Manhattan, the next, these gargantuan warriors were opening fire into the after work traffic.

Once we'd arrived, they'd scattered, dropping all attacks on civilians to focus their attentions on us. I'd thought at the time that they were just attacking the larger threat. But now...now I wonder if this was all an elaborate scheme...drawing us out into the open, learning our weaknesses.

But for what purpose? Is this a tactical maneuver, a small scouting force to report the holes in our defences to a larger host waiting to strike?

The thought makes my blood run cold. Not another invasion.

" _Guys? Does that make this a code green?_ " Bruce's hesitant voice finally speaks up over the comm. The sound of his voice is jarring, distracting me from the field. Over two years since I had heard Bruce Banner speak, since I had seen his face. And now that he's back...

Can't focus on that now.

I open my mouth to reply, my brows furrowing, but Steve beats me to it.

 _"Negative. Not until we know for sure what they are after."_

I burst onto the street, eyes widening at the battle unfolding before me.

Stark and Rhodes are both laying down fire onto a single entity, their combined repulsors and missiles doing nothing more than knocking it backwards. Sam soars above, tucking his wings in tight to barrel roll down from the sky straight into one of the aliens, whose spines bristle and shudder at the impact as it grapples with Sam's now spread metal wings.

Rogers and Barnes are back to back, two aliens wielding spears circling them, then darting forward in seemingly sporadic attacks. I recognize those moves, even in the strange, unearthly way they perform them. Learning the enemy, studying their reflexes.

Then I see the one I'd attacked, stalking forward to join its comrades. It casts a dismissive glance in my direction before moving towards Sam with purpose.

That's when a shiny silver corvette, framed with undulating crimson light, slams into it from its left. I whip my head to the side, my red curls swaying with the movement as I lock eyes on Wanda Maximoff, dressed in civilian clothing, her hands raised towards the alien.

"Sorry we're late," she says, curling her fingers back and jerking them forward again, a bus skidding across the ground, sparks flying to plow through the pair engaging Bucky and Steve, both of them rolling out of the way.

"We?" I ask.

A thin beam of golden light blasts into another alien's back as Vision phases up through the ground behind him.

The alien lets out a piercing, reptilian shriek, the first noise I've heard them make, its back arching at the impact.

Stark steps forward, gesturing, "That one was ours."

"Indeed?" Vision raises a brow. "My sensors indicated your attacks were causing no effect on the extra terrestrial's physical health."

He cuts off the beam of light emitting from the stone set into his forehead, and the alien goes down in a heap onto its front.

"Look at that. Easy as pie," Sam says, dusting his hands off and looking at the fallen aliens scattered around us.

"I don't like it," Barnes murmurs, eyeing one of them. "They're holding back and suddenly they're toast?"

"Maybe they were just waiting for a stronger opponent," Wanda strides forward, arching a delicate brow as her lips curve into a smirk.

"Yeah, or maybe-" Sam's voice cuts off abruptly as out of the shadows all around us step six more armor clad aliens, a myriad of weapons clasped in their hands. We all tense, shifting into defensive positions.

"What were you saying, Wilson?" asks Stark. "Easy as pie, was it?"

"Have you ever tried to make pie? That shit is nearly impossible," mutters Sam.

Then, as if they had simply laid down for the hell of it, all five of the aliens Wanda and Vision had downed get to their feet. The one nearest Wanda flips his staff with skillful ease, his dark eyes boring into her with savage focus.

I was right.

They _had_ been taking it easy on us, pulling their punches, observing. And now they know who the big players are, and I can see it in each of their stances, the way they hold their weapons in their massive, clawed hands.

They won't be holding back anymore.

"Dr. Banner? It's time for that code green," Steve orders in a low voice, all of us tensing for the one move that will send everything lunging into chaos.

* * *

 **Peter Parker**

Holy _shit_.

It isn't just Ironman fending off the aliens attacking New York, it's almost all of the Avengers, some of which I've never even seen in action before.

Landing in a low crouch on a neighboring rooftop, I take a second to scan the fierce, intensely cool, and, if I'm honest, totally terrifying battle in the streets below.

Scarlet Witch, who I've never gotten the chance to meet, is taking on two of the giant, badass looking aliens-whoa, those are some _sick_ spines coming out of their backs, _yeesh_ -her hands enveloped in a crimson aura as she draws one back and slams her open palm towards her attackers.

They go flying back, slamming into a third alien that had been aiming its gun right at Bucky's back, who is going hand to hand against one of the aliens, the sunlight glinting off of his metal arm.

God, this is so cool.

Ok, yeah, it's freaking terrible too. I mean, aliens crashing New York and attacking people sucks, like a lot, but seeing these guys in action like this, especially when it isn't fighting against a possessed...well, _me_ , has got to be one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

I see Cap take a running start, my lenses narrowing on him as he kicks off the wall of a building, propelling himself into the air and bringing his shield down to slam into the masked face of one of the aliens with a loud THWAM I can hear all the way from my perch. The alien drops like a rock, but out of the shadows across the street from Steve, another steps forward, a huge, high tech looking spear in its hands, aimed straight for him.

That's my cue.

I throw myself over the edge of the building, firing off a web to the corner of the tallest roof across the street, the line going taut as I begin swinging instead of falling. With my free hand, I web up a huge chunk of concrete near a crater in the ground-what the hell happened _there_?-and hurl it with all my strength at the alien taking aim at Steve's back.

BAM!

It collides with it so hard, the huge alien disappears beneath the debris, its weapon clattering to the street as I reach the peak of my swing, release the line, and flip back to land on an overturned bus.

Cap's head had whipped toward me the moment the concrete had slammed into the alien, and I give him a little wave. "Cap'n," I salute. I can't help myself. Feels wrong not to salute the guy, at least whenever we are in combat together, which, granted, hasn't been often, so maybe the gesture isn't too annoying yet.

"Queens," he nods, glancing towards the pile of debris at my back. "Nice work."

I try not to preen at the praise. Be cool, be cool, be-

A massive, ear-shattering roar echoes down the street, and my eyes widen, my head whipping from side to side. "What the hell was _that_?"

Steve gives me a small smile as he adjusts his grip on the shield. "Have you met Dr. Banner?"

No. No _way_.

On my right, down the south end of the street, is the Hulk, his huge, green fists raised, bellowing his fury as not one, not two, but _four_ of the alien attackers try to bring him down.

Holy _shit_.

My spider-senses give a massive jolt of warning, the feeling exploding at the base of my neck. "Oh god," I breathe, lenses wide. Without looking, I roll off the side of the bus and land on the ground, feeling the wind rush by me as the chunk of concrete I had thrown at the alien is thrown back at me. It crashes into the bus, sending it skidding towards Cap, who has to fling himself over a nearby truck to avoid it.

An armor clad fist is slamming towards my face.

I catch it without thinking, lenses narrowing as I take in the alien close up, from the gray, scaly skin, the advanced black armor, to its face, half covered by a metal plated mask, revealing only a pair of scary ass eyes and a broad, tattooed forehead.

Its other fist is surging towards me, and I release my grip to duck, then spring back, like _way_ back as it spins to kick out at me.

For not the first time in my life, I curse my short stature. These aliens are nearly double my height, broad shouldered and covered in muscles, which would make me feel like they should be moving much, much slower than me, especially with my enhanced abilities.

But these aliens are fast.

So fast, I am forced to move backward in a series of flips and ducks and dodges as the alien lunges for me, eyes narrowed, fists flying. It surges forward, planting its feet into the ground to deliver a spinning kick that nearly takes off my head.

I see my opportunity, leaping forward to slam both feet into its chest before it can regain its balance, sending the alien stumbling back into a light post.

"Whoa!" My senses blast a warning, and I flatten myself to the ground as Sam goes flying overhead, one of his wings sparking, billows of smoke trailing after him. "I got you!"

Springing up, I press my middle and index fingers onto my palm, shooting a long thread of web that spreads into a burst at the end, clinging to Sam's broken wing. He's going fast, his momentum nearly taking me off of my feet, forcing me to grip the web with both hands. I yank back hard.

Sam's descent halts as I haul him backwards, the man tucking and rolling within his broken wings as I release the web. He looks up, visor glinting. "Thanks, squirt!" he calls. "I owe y-"

I bend backwards, my spine arching as a black, glistening knife flashes above me, but before I can straighten, before I can move, a second knife is plunging down toward my chest.

Red and gold burst in a flash above me, and suddenly I can see nothing but the sky. Straightening, eyes wide, I see Ironman hovering above the street, light blasting from his palms into the alien that had very nearly stabbed me.

"Oh, hey, Mr. Stark! I-uh-I had that."

"So you weren't about to be filleted like a Saturday Special?" Mr. Stark's voice is dry, and I can't tell if he's irritated with me or not for showing up to this fight.

"Filleted? I think the kid was about to be skewered like a kabob," Colonel Rhodes adds down his own fire.

"Not that I don't appreciate these references of me as these guys' dinner..." I leap up to perch in a crouch on top of a traffic light. "But could we _not_?"

"It's okay kid, we all need a little rescuing now and then."

"Hey! Did you not _see_ me save Captain America's life?"

"Steve? I don't buy it."

"Cap! Back me up, here, man!" I call as I fire two webs in succession, the tiny bursts sticking with a thwack onto an alien's eyes just as it had raised its spear to throw at Black Widow. She sends me an approving nod.

Steve and Bucky are double teaming an alien that seems just as strong, just as fast as each of them. "Steve?" Bucky prompts, ducking under a blow to drive his metal fist into the alien's side. "Did you really get your ass saved by that scrawny pipsqueak?"

Cap drops into a crouch, raising his shield as the alien drives down a knife, a knife that had shot out of the skin of its wrist-yikes-and the edge of the blade slams into the vibranium with a loud clang. "I don't recall," he grunts as he straightens to drive his shield into the alien's gut while Bucky propels himself off of a car to slam his fist into the alien's throat.

"Not cool," I mutter as I swing off of the traffic light and into the fray.

* * *

 **Tony Stark**

Great. Not only are we fighting an increasingly large alien force that our technology is having little to no effect on, that according to Romanov is testing us for weaknesses, but the kid has shown up.

"Isn't it a school night?" I ask, ripping out a lamp post and swinging it like a bat as one of the alien bastards surges for me.

The kid swings down from the building, his feet colliding with the alien's back as it stumbles from my blow. "What's your point?" he asks cheerfully.

"My point is," I draw out the words, firing up my thrusters to shoot up into the sky as the alien retaliates, claws lashing towards me. "Shouldn't you be home, I don't know, studying? Texting your nerd squad? Getting lectured by your attractive aunt?"

"And miss all this? You're kidding, ri-Mr. Stark, look out!"

I whirl midair, but the kid is already right there, swinging up and over the rooftop above me, slamming shoulder first into the midsection of an alien I hadn't noticed, its gun aimed straight for my head.

They go down out of sight, but before I can shoot up after them, a clawed hand seizes my ankle, dragging me down. "You're in my space," I inform it as I catch the other hand that is swiping for my chest, and use my free hand to deliver six rapid punches to the alien's face. On the sixth, it releases me, and I fire up my thrusters attached to my forearms, releasing the gauntlets at the same time. Both go surging forward in a flash of light and smoke, plowing into the alien and locking onto its armor, propelling it far into the sky in an instant.

One jerk of my arms has a second pair of gauntlets folding over my bare hands, and then my head is whipping up towards the roof, my eyes scanning for a red and blue clad teenager and a larger than life alien determined to kill him.

An alien body goes flying over my head to crash into the overturned bus and skid all the way to the street over. I look back up, and the kid is standing at the roof's edge, lenses wide with surprise, like he hadn't even meant to do that.

"Mr. Stark, did you _see_ that?!" Peter's voice is high pitched and excited, and I have to roll my eyes.

"Great job, kid. I'll give you a cookie when this is done," I say dismissively, turning to glance down the street to see how the rest of Earth's Mightiest are faring.

"A cookie? I think that was worth at least-" the kid's voice suddenly chokes off in a ragged inhale that has me whirling.

His lenses are comically wide, and at first I expect to see an alien looming behind him or picking him up by his throat, but the kid is alone on the rooftop. Then my eyes see the unnaturally large, barbed hook protruding from his right shoulder.

A split second later, the kid is jerked off of his feet into the air with a pained grunt, shooting upwards on some invisible line.

"Kid!" I shift all remaining power to the thrusters at my feet, darting after him in a surge of heat. What the actual hell? Something is reeling him in, but I can see no ship, my sensors not even picking up a trace of activity. "Rhodes, I need backup up here."

" _Kinda busy at the moment."_

"Well get unbusy. Someone's decided to play go-fish with the kid."

CRUNCH.

I choke at the impact of something slamming into my back with enough force that I am jerked off course. Electricity radiates from whatever it is, purple sparks shooting down my limbs, across my chest, the sensors on my faceplate blinking in and out. "F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"

" _Some-inte-ering-my sens-can't-"_

The data across my screen vanishes abruptly, and I am left with nothing but darkness and silence where a moment ago there had been the roaring of thrusters and lights dotting my vision. I get a glimpse of the kid's small body shooting up higher and higher, and then I am falling.

"Shit," I curse, trying anything and everything to bring the suit online, but whatever technology the alien had hit me with had wiped out all my systems. My body flips and spins as I fall, faster and faster and faster until I can't tell what is up and what is down.

This is going to hurt like a bitch.

SLAM!

For a moment, I think I crashed into the ground, but then my body is surging back up, and I register a pair of arms hooked under my shoulders. "See, Tony? This is what catching someone looks like," comes Rhodey's shout over the wind and roar of his own thrusters. "Try it some time."

"That's low, even for you," I yell back, even though I know he doesn't really mean it.

The moment the boots of my suit hit the rooftop, I'm jerking my helmet off of my head. Rhodey's faceplate retracts, and I'm spinning, eyes to the sky.

"Rally the others," I start, my gaze trying to pinpoint the kid. "We have to go up after them."

"Tony-"

I follow the line of trajectory from where the kid had last been perched on the roof to where he was dragged up into the sky. "There," I point. "If you go now, you should be able to catch him."

" _Tony."_

My teeth clench, and I whirl back at him, eyes narrowed. " _What_?"

Rhodey's mouth is set in a grim line, his stance rigid, but unhurried. The exact opposite of what I need him to be right now. "They're gone."

"Gone? What do you mean, 'gone'? Who's gone?"

I turn from him towards the battleworn street below, scanning for the others. There's Sam, shrugging off his highly damaged, still smoking wings, and Natasha, clutching her side and looking around her, bewildered. The fallen bodies of the aliens are nowhere to be seen, and I step closer to the edge, my gauntleted hands gripping the railing lining the rooftop.

Silence.

The Hulk has vanished, or Banner is unconscious somewhere, nursing a bad headache. That alone would be suspicious, but there's no rallying call from Cap, no Barnes brooding beside him. No Wanda. No Vision.

No Peter.

"What the hell happened?" I jerk back to Rhodey, but his eyes are fixed on the sky.

He nods, face awed and set with resignation. " _That_ happened."

I turn, and the sight makes my stomach drop. A massive, dark ship in the distorted shape of a triangular prism hovers high above us, its hull made of the same black metal covering the alien attackers, with rust colored symbols painted on its hull in a language I can't even begin to decipher.

A ship with cloaking technology so advanced, there had been no telltale shimmer or distortion separating it from the blue sky and clouds. So advanced, none of our sensors, none of my technology had picked up on even the slightest trace of it there above us.

Wind whips around us, carrying with it the smell of burning chemicals, the faint heat emanating from the ship above as it tilts skyward. White hot energy bursts from the thrusters on either side, scorching the rooftops beneath it as it cuts through the sky like nothing more than a streak of shadow.

Just as quickly as it had appeared, the ship is gone.

Carrying with it the rest of the Avengers.

* * *

 **a/n: This is going to be one exciting ride, people. I wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who reviewed my last chapter of Silent Night, even long after I finished posting it! I will be replying to all the reviews at the end of the chapter as per usual, so make sure you let me know what you think down below!**

 **Also, a HUGE thank you to PippinStrange, who is my loyal and phenomenal beta. This is for you, FIFFER! If you guys are struggling with PTSD from Infinity War (MY HEART, OMG), go read her in progress fic Where They Go. It is a balm to my wounds that Infinity War gave me, and it is so freaking good. Has EVERYTHING you could want. For reals.**

 **I am beyond excited about this fic, and hope to be posting at least once a week. It's going to be an intense one! (When are my fics ever NOT intense?) and will include characters I haven't had in my fics yet, as well as perspectives I have not written from before. This is bigger and badder than Paint it Black or Silent Night, and I think will be a worthy inclusion in the series, though it is not featuring Venom or Hydra as the big bad this time. I also have another few fics planned for after Riders in the Sky is over, so stay tuned guys! Can't wait to hear all of your thoughts!**

* * *

 **Coming Up:**

 **Chapter Two: Hurt**

 **The captured Avengers wake up to unfortunate circumstances, while Tony Stark and the others receive unexpected aid in their attempts to rescue their comrades**


	2. Hurt

**CHAPTER TWO: Hurt**

* * *

 **Peter Parker**

 _Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud._

Something's...throbbing.

My head? My heartbeat? If...if it's my heartbeat...then it's on the wrong side of my chest.

 _Thud. Thud. Thud._

I feel my brows knit together, my lips curving into a frown. My head feels thick and heavy, like it's filled to near overflowing...with what, I'm not sure. Cotton, maybe? Except cotton's supposed to be light. And my head feels the opposite of that.

Ugh, I can't think straight.

 _Thud. Thud._

Swallowing thickly, my mouth so dry my tongue is sticking to the roof of my mouth, I attempt to pry open my heavy eyes.

Inches away from me is black stone, a wall of it that is both jagged and smooth, covered in a glassy, polished sheen. Thin cuts and crevices wind up the obsidian wall, red light glowing dimly through them, pulsing faintly like it has its own heartbeat, like someone cut into the rock to find its veins emitting a crimson glow.

It's pretty, hypnotic.

And definitely _not_ from Earth.

It's that thought that has my eyes widening, my breathing hitching as the memories from the past several hours, or what I _hope_ are the past several hours, crash into me.

"His heart rate is accelerating, as is his breathing pattern. I believe he's waking."

I don't know that voice. Or, do I? It sounds...vaguely familiar.

Shit. _Shit_.

"Kid? Peter? Can you hear me?"

 _That_ voice I know.

I'm curled up on my side, facing the wall of hammered ebony stone, interspersed with strange columns. Breathing comes harder, so I wrench off my mask and start to roll over to face the voices-

 _Pain_.

White hot pain lances through my right shoulder, shooting down the raw nerves of my arm, my chest, my back. It makes me inhale sharply through my nose, a pained grunt escaping my closed mouth before I can try to stifle it.

"Easy," Steve soothes, his voice utterly calm. "Try not to move."

Screw that, I think. I need to see what the hell is going on. Trying not to look at the barbed hook I now very clearly remember is embedded into my shoulder, I slowly, tentatively place my hands on the ground in front of me, putting most of my weight on my left as I begin shoving myself upright.

"Hey, don't-"

Too late.

Breathing raggedly, a cold sweat erupting all over my skin, I ease myself up into a sitting position, the pain making me clench my teeth together so tight, my jaw begins to ache.

"Ow," I pant, head hanging low.

"I told you not to move," Steve reprimands quietly.

"Sorry, Cap. Not...not used to following orders," I admit, turning so that the left side of my back is leaning against the stone wall. My shoulder is throbbing, the pain of it making me dizzy. But hey, I can finally see what's going on.

And it's not good. Not good at all.

I'm in a cell.

The words send a thrill of icy panic down my spine that has my insides clenching and my mind bleating no, no, not _again_ , not _this_ , trapped, no, _no_ , nonononononono-

"Anchor," Bucky's steady voice reminds me.

Anchor. Right. I can-

-but I'm locked up, I'm in a cell and they got me and everything is red-red-red and _black-_

I press against my chest, just over my heart, pain lancing up my right arm at the movement, but I press harder until the grey spots speckling the edge of my vision begin to die down, and my lungs feel less tight and my heart isn't pounding so loudly and-

"Sorry," I mutter, my face flushing.

"Nothing to be sorry for," Steve's eyes are sympathetic, understanding, and it makes me feel more embarrassed than I already am.

To distract from my growing mortification and still simmering panic, I take in everything around me.

My cell seems to be made of thick glass on three sides, cornered by those tall, jagged pillars of red lit black stone. The ceilings are much higher than I expect them to be, tall enough to imprison the aliens themselves, if they felt like doing so. There are more cells on either side of me, and a narrow walkway at the front separating the line of compartments from another row across from it.

Steve's in the cell just across from me, Vision to his left, Dr. Bruce Banner to his right. In the cell to my right is Bucky, who is sitting with one leg outstretched, the other pulled up for his metal arm to rest on, his body facing mine. And Scarlet Witch, looking pale and on the edge of panic herself, is in the cell to my left.

"Crap," I say.

Bucky snorts. "That about sums it up."

"What happened?" I ask, frowning. The last thing I remember is pain exploding in my shoulder and being dragged up into the air.

"We were taken," Scarlet Witch answers tightly, her fingers clenching and unclenching into fists.

"By the aliens?"

She raises a brow, like 'what do you think?'

Then I notice something as I gaze at each of my fellow prisoners in turn. "Hey, where are all your hooks? Why are you guys all hook free?"

"We were all on the ground when we got taken," Dr. Banner replies, speaking for the first time, his hands rubbing nervously together. "I think you were the only one up on the roof."

"Lucky me," I mutter, leaning my head back against the warm stone.

"We were all taken separately," Vision informs me, gazing at me with those unnerving eyes of his. "They strapped something to my chest that prevented me from phasing and released an electronic pulse that short circuited my sensors."

"Best I can tell, I got hit over the head," Dr. Banner winces, rubbing the back of his skull. "Hard."

"What about-where are the others?" I ask Steve, my eyes widening. "Where are they? Mr. Stark-"

"Not here," Cap cuts me off. "We were the only ones taken."

Which meant Mr. Stark, Natasha, Sam, Colonel Rhodes, they are all still in New York, left behind. That, or they are-

"Don't," Steve orders firmly. "I know that look. They're fine. The aliens weren't interested in them."

Not interested in them. Not them. Us. Because we are the ones that were taken, that are locked up in cells instead of killed.

Oh god.

Oh _shit_.

I'm trapped in a cell on an alien ship, probably hurtling into deep space at this very moment. An alien ship. In _space_.

Oh god oh god oh god.

The thought is so claustrophobic, so completely terrifying that I begin pressing against that spot above my heart again to keep the panic at bay. There's so much...the dark cell, the oppressive, dim lights casting everything in a red sheen...the knowledge that I am in space, captive aboard an alien craft and it isn't a sci fi movie or a comic, it's _real_ and I'm trapped and there's a freaking _hook_ in my _shoulder_.

Breathe. In and out. In and out.

At least...at least I'm not alone this time. I'm taken, I'm locked in a cell, but I'm not alone. I have five other Avengers with me. Five super strong Avengers.

And I know Mr. Stark. I know the lengths he will go to to save his team, to save me.

He had gone to the ends of the earth to rescue me from Hydra. He'd done anything and everything within his power and beyond it to remove Venom, to keep me safe. Somehow, I don't think something like outer space is going to stop him or the others from coming to help us.

I trust him.

It's just that simple.

Even if...even if I had been the only one taken, even if I was the only one in this corridor of cells, I would trust Mr. Stark to come for me. He always has. Whatever this is, wherever we are going, we are going to get out of it.

Bolstered by these thoughts, I let my hand drop to my lap, grit my teeth, and sit up further, ignoring the pain in my right shoulder. "Okay," I breathe. "So...we have a plan, right? What's the plan?"

They exchange looks.

"There is a plan, isn't there?" I ask hopefully.

"Hard to come up with a plan when these cells are impenetrable," Bucky says dryly.

"Indeed," Vision agrees, looking way too calm for this situation as he stands perfectly still in the center of his cell. "I cannot phase through any of the walls."

"It isn't affected by my power, either," Scarlet Witch adds, her voice bitter as crimson light weaves between her fingers. She splays them in a jerking motion, and the light shoots forward to be absorbed into the glass wall in between us.

"Bucky and I can't exactly punch our way out," says Steve at my questioning look.

"What about the Hulk?" I ask Dr. Banner. "Can't you-he-can't you guys bust out of here?"

Dr. Banner winces. "Yeah, not a good idea. He might be able to smash apart these cells, but he'd likely take half the ship out with them. And I don't know about you, kid, but I don't fancy taking a swim amongst the stars."

Fair point.

I sigh heavily, then realize how rude I'm being. "Oh. Hey, I'm uh-I'm Peter. Nice to meet you, Dr. Banner. I'm...actually a huge fan."

He raises his eyebrows. "A fan, huh? The big guy will be happy to hear that."

"Oh. Not him. I mean, yeah him, he's freaking awesome, but I meant you," I stammer awkwardly. This is not exactly how I had imagined meeting one of my idols. "Your research. I've based a few science projects off of your work. Even wrote a paper once on your work on anti-electron collisions. Got an A."

Stop talking, Parker, you sound like an idiot.

Dr. Banner looks a little baffled, but pleased. "Call me Bruce."

"Wanda," says a slightly accented voice to my left. I turn towards her and give her a smile, which she returns with a small one of her own. I remember then, that while I was locked up in a cell in a Hydra facility, she was in one not too different on the Raft, and that being trapped like this is probably just as horrible for her as it is for me.

Maybe even worse. She was imprisoned for a long time.

"I am Vision," the android introduces himself, and I give a little wave with my good hand.

We lapse into silence for a few minutes, each of us lost in our own thoughts.

I think of May, her pale face and worried eyes as she'd refused to let me go, as she told me to come home. My gut wrenches with guilt. God, she must be freaking out by now. Sorry, May. I won't be home for awhile.

And Ned...I'd never texted him back.

Or MJ.

 _Be careful._

I guess I hadn't been careful. Clearly not careful enough, since I've been kidnapped by aliens and thrown into a cell heading god knows where.

 _Be careful._

I frown. If I didn't know any better, I would think that MJ knew that I was Spiderman, that she was warning me to watch out for myself. But that is impossible. There's no way she could know. She probably saw the news and was wanting me to stay inside, to stay safe.

I should have texted her back the same thing.

 _You too_. That's what I should have texted. It would have only taken a second.

I hope Mr. Stark is okay. Him and the others. I hope he called May and that he didn't lie to her like last time. Thinking of how well it went over when he'd fed her a story after I'd been kidnapped by Hydra, I highly doubt he'd make the same mistake twice.

"Hey, Pete?"

I jerk, my eyes shooting open, then hiss at the burning pain lancing through my shoulder. Had I fallen asleep?

"Yeah?" I croak, blinking blearily.

"How's that arm?" Dr. Banner-Bruce- asks, his brown eyes worried.

"Uh...it's been better."

I'm trying not to think about it actually. Trying not to look at the black, craggy edge jutting out of my shoulder, the barbed end of it poking out of my back. Trying not to dwell on the throbbing, burning pain emanating from it, or the warm blood I feel drying on my chest and back.

Key word is trying.

I shift uncomfortably at all the eyes on me. "It's fine."

"You're impaled on a hook," Bucky deadpans from my right.

I shoot him a dirty look. "No shit. Can we talk about something else, please?"

My good hand is clenching into a fist. The more we talk about it, the more I focus on the pain, on the oppressive, violating feeling of something _inside_ me.

"Why us?" I bite out suddenly.

Steve's eyes move from my shoulder to my face. "Why take us?" he clarifies, and I nod. "If I had to guess, it's because of our abilities."

"Our...abilities?"

"Think about it," he prompts. "Who did they take? Who did they leave behind? None of the others were super soldiers, or were enhanced with any kind of special powers."

I frown. He's right. Mr. Stark, Natasha, Sam, Colonel Rhodes, they were all insanely good fighters, way better than me, with more experience and the tech to match. Better heroes who'd done more to protect the world than I had. But they'd been left behind. Why?

"That's encouraging," Dr. Banner rubs a hand over his face, leaning against one of the glass walls of his cell.

"But what do they want us for?" asks Wanda. "Why take us instead of kill us?"

Vision opens his mouth to answer her when a distant hiss and boom echoes across the corridor. We all go still and tense, silencing our conversation to listen.

I glance at Bucky, then Steve, their faces grim and focused.

Shit. What's happening?

Metal begins clanking on stone, the sound ringing eerily, heavily, rhythmically. Footsteps, multiple, if I had to guess. I meet Dr. Banner's worried eyes, and I try to steady the rapidly increasing beat of my heart.

I see it through the outer wall of Bucky's cell first, an alien like the ones we fought in New York, looming tall and terrible, its grey skin covered with black armor, with hella creepy eyes, and tattoos running down its bald head. I glance up at the spikes running down its neck and spine, spearing through the armor.

There are two of them.

They stalk down the walkway, spears strapped to their backs.

My skin prickles all over, my wound giving an extra throb as I watch them move. There's almost a gracefulness to how they walk, the same kind of effortlessness I've seen in the Black Widow when she's fighting, something feline and deadly.

Steve and Vision are already standing, and the others get to their feet as the aliens approach, readying themselves for what's about to happen, preparing to fight back. To my left, red light begins to emanate from Wanda's cell, her scarlet eyes glowing bright enough to rival theirs.

I try to push myself up with my left arm, but the pain makes my knees buckle, makes me slide uselessly back onto the ground.

The aliens' steps begin to slow, their terrible eyes scanning their prisoners, their expressions hidden by the black, metal plated masks adorning the bottom halves of their faces.

They stop in unison in between Steve's cell and mine.

And as one, they look at me.

My stomach bottoms out, the breath dying in my lungs as every single muscle goes completely rigid.

Strange clicking, reptilian noises murmur beneath those masks, and then one of them presses its clawed hand against the wall of my cell. It shoots up towards the ceiling at its touch, and there is now nothing between me and them.

"Hey," Bucky slams his metal fist against the wall between us, his face dark and furious. "Hey!"

They stalk towards me, and hook in my shoulder be damned, I am not going to let them take me without defending myself.

Heart hammering in my chest, adrenaline surging through my veins, I let one of them get close before hooking my foot around its ankle and pulling sharply. It stumbles, falling to its side, and I kick out hard into its chest, using the momentum to stagger to my feet, pain blaring in my shoulder at the movement. The other alien advances, but doesn't reach for its weapons.

Bucky is punching the wall separating us with his metal fist, over and over and over again as the alien lunges for me. I dodge to the left, but then I feel a hand at my ankle, holding me in place as the second alien, dark eyes blazing, shoots out to grip my by my throat.

The two converse in their low, hissing language as I struggle against its hold to no avail. Its grip is like steel, but it doesn't attempt to squeeze my airway shut, it just holds me in place.

"Let him go!" Steve demands in a deadlier voice than I have ever heard from him, and behind me, Bucky is still beating furiously against the glass barrier, but the aliens simply ignore them, the one holding me turning and dragging me out of the cell.

I buck against its grip, trying to pry of its hand with my good arm, my shoulder now burning fiercely with dizzying pain, but it's no use.

I get one last look at Bucky's murderous expression, his metal fist raised before I am dragged over the threshold of the holding cell corridor's exit.

And the door slams shut.

* * *

 **Tony Stark **

Nothing.

No indication of who these guys were, what they wanted, why they took our people, where they'd come from or gone to. No alien bodies. No splashes of blood or scraps of DNA to study. No residue from their weapons, no traces of any energy signatures.

Not a single fucking clue.

Even Natasha, with her arsenal of disturbing skills and resources, is baffled by it. The government wants answers, the media wants the story, and May Parker wants to know why the hell her nephew hasn't come home yet. But there's nothing but a battleworn street and a handful of survivors that are just as clueless as the rest of the world.

"Where is he?" are May Parker's first words when she answers the phone.

I wanted to avoid this phone call, but I know how that story plays out. I don't have a plan for what I am about to tell her.

"I don't know," is my honest reply. I don't know where he is, this kid that has somehow become the bane of my existence and a crucial addition to my life.

"Is he alive?"

"I don't know."

Her breathing hitches. "What the hell do you know?"

I tell her.

"You go. You find him," May says with a ferocity that doesn't surprise me. "You bring our boy back home."

I don't even bat an eye at the word ' _our_ '.

"I will," I vow.

I don't know how many promises I will make to the Parker family. Don't know how many I will be able to keep, how many I will be forced to break.

There's nothing to go off of. No leads. No clues.

But terrible odds have never stopped me before, have never stopped the Avengers. When I tell Rhodey this, he gives me a baffled look and replies, "Terrible odds? Tony, there are zero odds. We have nothing. What are we supposed to do, scour the entire universe?"

If it comes to that, yes.

I call in reinforcements as soon as we regroup back at the Avengers facility upstate, not knowing what they can possibly offer, but knowing we can't do this on our own. God, what has it come to that Scott Lang and Clint Barton qualify as backup? Natasha had been the one to bring in Lang, and a short phone call from me had had Barton leaving his pitchfork and tractor behind to pick up his bow and quiver.

Sam has adopted a permanent expression of worry that I know will leave deep, permanent imprints into the space between his eyebrows and the corners of his mouth. I offer him top of the line anti-aging cream from Pepper's bathroom, but he scowls at me and waves it away.

Natasha keeps up the calm, all business air as she throws herself into research, into tracking down any information of our alien kidnappers, her frown deepening every time her search turns up no results.

Rhodey is at a loss, wanting to do something just as badly as the rest of us, but also has a tendency to keep pointing out that all we've uncovered is a steaming pile of nothing in that super helpful way of his.

So here we stand, a group of powerless, clueless Avengers, all that is left of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, without a single idea of how to hunt down and rescue the rest of our team.

That is when F.R.I.D.A.Y. notifies me that we have more visitors.

Exchanging frowns and baffled looks, none of us having made any more calls or sent out any more invitations, we are more than a little stunned when King T-Challa himself enters our disarrayed conference room, followed by a shorter young woman sipping a large frappuccino from Starbucks and a trio of fierce looking Wakandan guards.

Well, I'll be damned.

"Not that I don't appreciate the surprise visit," I say, standing and reaching forward to clasp his hand. "But we are in the middle of a crisis here. I hope you have something more to offer than some spectacular fashion advice."

The young woman beside him snorts, then gives me a very unimpressed look. "Though you could use the fashion advice, Mr. Stark," she says in a heavily accented voice like the king's as her eyes wander down my designer suit. "We have brought something infinitely more valuable."

"Shuri," scolds T'Challa with a disapproving eye.

"And what's that?" I ask, eyebrow raised.

Shuri smirks over her frappuccino. "Our aid."

* * *

 **A/N: Ahhhhh you guys! The overwhelming response to the first chapter of this fic totally made my day! I am so excited to see familiar reviewers and brand new ones! I am beyond thrilled that you are all as excited for this fic as I am, and I hope it doesn't disappoint! Seriously, you guys make my day. You have no idea how inspiring it is to read your thoughts and excitement, or to know how invested you all are in this verse I am playing with.**

 **PippinStrange deserves a huge round of applause for her beta skills, her constant source of support and inspiration for me, and her above and beyond mad skills. She's working on a birthday fic for me that heals all the holes in my chest that Infinity War gave me, so if you are feeling the same, go check it out! Her other stories are just as amazing too, and the reason I am writing Avengers fics at all.**

 **I don't have a plan for the length of this fic, just kind of taking it where it leads me, but be prepared for lots of action, suspense, humor, and lots of different POVs. Should be super fun!**

* * *

Review Replies:

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Sticks and Bones: So excited to hear you've been reading the series! Alas, I am SO behind when it comes to Marvel shows, so unfortunately, the Defenders, as sick as that would be, will not be making an appearance. I'd have to spend several months binging all the shows in order to be able to write them accurately and I gots no time. lol

gandalf537: BRO YOUR REVIEW MADE MY DAY. XD Like WOW. Seriously left me grinning like an idiot. Thank you so so so so so much. I was hoping my old readers would be psyched to see a new one! Hope you all enjoy this one as much as the others! You're amazing. Seriously.

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* * *

 **Guys, seriously. Reviews are the kindling to the fires of inspiration. Thank you all so so much. Please continue to leave your thoughts and support below, and I will do my best to update as frequently as I am able to!**

 **Coming Up:**

 **Chapter Three: The Man Comes Around**

 **In which I get to write from a POV I have NEVER written from before (GUYS I LOVE IT SO MUCH), you guys get to find out what happened to Peter Parker, and meanwhile, back on Earth, the others plan their rescue, and Tony meets his match in a certain Wakandan Princess**


	3. The Man Comes Around

**Chapter Three: The Man Comes Around**

* * *

 **Wanda Maximoff**

Bucky looks like a caged tiger.

Back and forth he strides across the narrow expanse of his cell, his hands curled into fists, his jaw set, his expression glowering. The dim red cracks from the ship's dark stone cast him in a menacing light, deepening the shadows around his eyes.

My gaze tracks him as he paces, and like a tiger, his muscles are coiled, tense, aching to strike out and unleash violence.

I don't even have to use my powers to feel what he is feeling, not when I can see it clear as day.

I cast a glance over at Steve, who sits against the back wall of his cell, his arms hanging loosely over his pulled up knees. His blue eyes follow his friend, and though his stance is far more relaxed, I can see the truth.

He is just as agitated, his shoulders heavy with the burden of guilt, with the weight of helpless inaction. The set of Steve's mouth is grim, worried, and though his eyes are watching Bucky pace, his gaze is distant, thinking.

As if he can sense my observations, Steve's eyes move away from Bucky to look at me. "Can you feel him at all? See what's happening?"

I shake my head, wishing I had a different answer for him. "My powers cannot extend past the walls of my cell."

He gives a brisk nod, as if he had expected as much.

"He'll be okay, though, won't he?" Bruce asks, his eyes flicking between all of our faces. "They wouldn't have gone to the trouble of taking us just to kill him right off the bat."

"Yes, highly unlikely," Vision agrees, all of us turning to look at him. "There are hundreds of possibilities concerning their intentions, the most probable being either scientific study or interrogation under strain, though, seeing as the aliens have given no indication that they speak or understand English, I doubt the latter is occuring."

A violent shiver shudders across my skin.

"Although," Vision continues thoughtfully. "I don't see why they would seek to understand our abilities, given that their own physiques, strengths, and technology far surpass our own. They would not gain much by studying our powers or dissecting our bodies that they don't already possess in their own ma-"

" _Stop_. _Talking_ ," Bucky bites out in a low voice.

"Jesus," mutters Bruce as he rubs his forehead, looking nauseous.

Vision meets my gaze, his eyes softening. "I...apologize. I did not mean to speak insensitively. Only to assure the likelihood of Mr. Parker's survival-"

"Shh," I hush gently, giving him a small smile. "It's alright."

We gaze at each other for a long moment, and my hands ache with the need to touch him, to feel his emotions as I lay in his arms like we've done for the past several months as we've travelled the world together.

Vision had been by my side through it all. Through every whim that took me across Europe, through every panic attack, every nightmare…

God, so many nightmares.

I dreamed of Pietro, of his self assured smile, the ridiculous way he'd act like he was the overprotective older brother despite only being twelve minutes apart, the moment he was ripped away from me, tearing a hole in my chest that could never be filled.

I dreamed of falling through that hole, of drowning in the emptiness of my existence without him, of being crushed by the weight of my mistakes-Ultron, Sokovia, the Wakandan workers in Nigeria...

I dreamed of being trapped in a white cell, my arms bound around my chest in a straitjacket, a thick metal collar around my neck. A criminal. An animal. A monster.

Vision had held me through each nightmare, had brought me back to myself when I'd get lost in the pain of it all, my powers threatening to level everything around me. He looked at me with those strange eyes, those eyes that knew me like no one else, those eyes that saw me, that saw my darkness, and did not turn away.

I place my hand against the wall of my cell, and Vision does the same across the corridor.

"So… just how old is he?" asks Bruce, breaking the silence.

Steve heaves a breath. "Fifteen."

"I'm sorry...what?" Bruce's face has gone slack with shock. " _Fifteen_? What, did we start an Avengers Junior team while I was gone? Jesus, Steve!"

"It's a long story," Steve says wearily, meeting Bruce's incredulous gaze. "Tony-"

The main door at the end of the corridor slides open with a hiss of air and a loud, metal clang. Bucky lunges for the front of his cell as Steve surges to his feet, and a pair of the alien warriors stride down the metal walkway.

Between them, they drag the limp body of the boy.

They have a hold of each of his arms, Peter's head hanging low, his legs dragging against the floor as they move with determined strides to his cell.

"What did you do?" demands Bucky in a low, savage voice. When they don't answer, he slams a metal fist onto the glass. "Hey! What did you do to him?"

One of the aliens lifts a hand to open Peter's cell, and once they are inside, they drop him unceremoniously onto the ground, turn, and leave.

As they exit, the one nearest to me pauses, half turning to examine me with those narrowed black eyes, red irises gleaming. It searches my face, and I don't know what it's looking for. Fear? Weakness?

It will find none from me.

I breathe deeply, letting my power surge to the surface, my own eyes emitting an even brighter crimson glow as I glower up at its masked face. I dare it with my eyes to open my cell door, to come in and try to make me be afraid.

The alien's eyes narrow further before it turns to follow its companion out of the corridor.

"Peter?" Steve calls, pressed against the front of his cell. "Kid, talk to me."

I move to the barrier separating Peter and I, kneeling down by the edge to see Bucky doing the same on the other side.

Peter stirs, letting out a breathy groan as he slowly rolls over onto his back. His face is horribly pale, but unmarred as he stares up at the ceiling.

Steve lets out a sigh laced with relief. "How're you doing, Queens?"

Peter lifts his left arm, his gloved hand trembling slightly as he gives him a thumbs up. "Just peachy, Cap."

"What happened?" Bucky demands.

"They," the teenager swallows thickly, keeping his gaze up at the ceiling and making no attempt to move. "Unhooked me."

All of our eyes shoot straight to his right shoulder, his Spiderman suit still drenched with the dark stains of his dried blood, but the hook is indeed gone. In its place are thick, gray bandages wrapping around his entire shoulder, several bands of it crisscrossing his chest to hold them in place.

"They healed you?" my brows furrow in confusion.

Peter winces. "I wouldn't call it that. But...yeah. They took the hook out and bandaged me up."

"You ok, kid? You look a little pale," Bruce asks, peering over at him.

"M'fine," he takes several deep breaths as he reaches up to press his fingers against the skin above his heart. "Their uh-anesthesiologist must have had the day off."

I wince as Bruce lets out a hiss of sympathy. Bucky looks so enraged, I am surprised he does not burst into flame.

"But hey-" Peter continues breathily. "No hook in my shoulder. So...I guess, yay me?"

"I don't understand," my eyes lift from the injured teenager to look at Steve. "Why would they do that?"

"Whatever they want us for," he answers grimly. "They want us alive and in good health."

"Cause that isn't foreboding in the slightest," grimaces Bruce.

"We have to do something," I insist, eyeing the pained teenager on the floor of his cell. "We can't just wait for them to drag us off one by one to do...whatever it is they plan on doing."

"Action for the sake of action is not always the wisest course," disagrees Vision. "We know nothing about their intentions, nor where they are taking us. It might be better to bide our time until we learn more."

"I think they've made their intentions fairly clear," I argue, gesturing towards Peter.

"Vision's right."

My eyes cut into Steve, who stares back unflinchingly. "We don't know where we are, we don't know where this ship is going, and we don't know what we are up against. We lost that battle in New York because we didn't know our enemy. I don't think we should make the same mistake twice."

"So we do nothing," Bruce says it more like a question than a statement. "Just wait for them to show their hand?"

"I don't like it," I fold my arms over my chest.

"Neither do I," agrees Steve. "But right now, it's the best we got."

I cast my frown towards Vision, but see that his eyes are on Peter. After a moment, he asks, "Where did they take you?"

Peter releases a long sigh and gingerly pushes himself up to his left arm so he can see us. I notice a thin sheen of sweat covering his forehead, his pupils over dilated. "Um...I don't know. Another room, I guess? It was pretty dark."

Steve's expression changes, his eyes lighting with focus. "Peter, you saw more of the ship than any of us has. Try and remember anything you noticed. It could be important."

Peter swallows, looking nauseous and like the last thing he wants to do is relive the past couple hours, but he nods. "I...there was a hallway, um long, and narrow. They dragged me down it for a long time," his brows knit together as he thinks. "We turned right, then left? I don't know, I can't-"

"Where there any other doors? Other hallways?" Steve prompts, his voice firm but gentle.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, there were two, no, three intersecting hallways we passed. Lots of doors. I don't remember how many," Peter admits apologetically.

"That's ok. What about the room they took you to?"

"It was pretty big. Maybe the size of all our cells put together? There...there were more of the aliens in there, waiting."

"How many?"

"Two more. It had to have been their medbay or something. There were lots of...tools," Peter pales even further, his lips forming a thin line. "And a few really long tables with-with straps. Uh...I don't know what else. It was dark in there, and then I was...focused on something else."

"It's ok, kid," Bruce says soothingly, his forehead creased with pity. Then to Steve, he murmurs, "Christ, that's enough. Leave the kid be before he passes out."

"Too late," Bucky deadpans.

Sure enough, Peter's head begins to dip, the only color on his face being the dim red glow from the ship's walls. "Srry," he slurs a little, his eyelids drooping. "Pretty sure I've lost a lot of blood at this point...and yep, there goes the rest of my adrenaline...so if it's cool, I think I'm gnna just...sleep for a bit."

Steve's smile doesn't meet his eyes. "Get some rest, Peter."

"Thnks. Wake me up...if anything intrrsting happens," he sighs, laying back down on the ground. Within seconds, his eyes are shut and his chest rises and falls with his deepening breaths.

Grim silence follows as we all mull over our situation and the seemingly endless list of horrifying outcomes. I move to sit at the front of my cell, leaning my head against the glass. It feels less claustrophobic here by all the clear barriers.

I keep stretching out my arms, flexing my wrists, curling my fingers to remind myself that I am not constrained, that I can move, even though I am locked up. I practice drawing on my power, making the red light of it curl around my arms and shoot away from me, testing every inch of my cell for weakness.

It helps keep the panic at bay, helps me focus on something besides the four walls around me. And even though I try not to think it, my mind reverts back to so many months ago, to one of the few things that had occupied my thoughts while locked up on the Raft, counting every single day that had passed.

Imprisoned. Trapped. Caged.

Day _one._

* * *

 **Natasha Romanov**

We were wrong.

The attack on Manhattan two days ago was not the first time these aliens have visited Earth.

Fifty years ago, their camouflaged ship had descended upon Wakanda, and in an eerily identical maneuver, had attacked its capital to draw out their fiercest warriors. Once those warriors had made themselves known, the alien craft had vanished as abruptly as it had in New York, taking the Wakandan soldiers with it.

"Wakanda has been hidden from the world all these years," T-Challa says. "And yet, somehow, these beings were able to see through our cloaking, slip through our defenses. They should not have been able to, should not have known of our technological advances. But they did. And they came for us."

"How many did they take?" I ask, eyes narrowed on the holographic display on the table in front of me. Pale blue buildings depicting the Wakandan palace and capital city rise up from the table, its small streets filled with miniature Wakandan soldiers, spears raised as twelve of the same alien warriors we'd fought descend upon them.

"Fifteen."

I jerk my head towards Okoye, her expression grim and solemn. "Fifteen members of the Dora Milaje, our finest warriors, were taken that day. Taken, and never returned."

"Jesus Christ," murmurs Rhodes, one arm folded across his chest, his other hand rubbing his jaw.

"Did they leave anything behind?" Tony asks from across the table, his eyes focused on the diagram as the holographic warriors and aliens vanish like a breeze had run across the display and swept them away.

"No," T'Challa replies shortly. "Not a trace that they had ever been there. The loss was a heavy one, and our people mourned the women that were taken, but there was no way to find them, no way to go after them."

Tony's jaw tightens.

"Which is why we have been preparing for their return ever since," T'Challa's voice darkens, and I watch as Tony jerks his head towards him.

"You have something."

"We have a lot more than something," Shuri raises her chin with a small, proud smile. With a wave of her hand, the display on the table diminishes, then disappears entirely to be replaced with a floating diagram of the alien ship we'd seen.

We move in closer.

"The moment the ship entered Earth's atmosphere, our satellites picked up on it," Shuri forms a triangle with her fingers then spreads her hands apart, and the image zooms out to show the alien craft in space, triangulated by the Wakandan satellites.

"Hang on, you have _satellites_ now?" Tony frowns.

"Shh," Shuri waves him off briskly. And then I know that later I will be combing through the security footage in this room to screenshot this moment and the look on Stark's face at being shushed by this girl. Priceless. Clint and I exchange a look, and I know that he is thinking the same thing.

"Our technology has advanced leaps and bounds even from only fifty years ago." Shuri shoots her brother a sly look. "Especially in the last ten years. We've broadened our satellite's capabilities, heightened the sensitivity of our sensors to capture what was uncapturable fifty years ago."

"You got a picture of their ship," Clint leans his hands on the table, looking at the holographic image with narrowed eyes. "But they got our people. So I hope all these fancy diagrams are about to make some kind of point."

The princess shoots him a dark look, opening her mouth, but her brother speaks first. "When their ship exited Earth's atmosphere, our satellites placed a tracker on the hull of their craft, small, unnoticeable."

Indeed, when Shuri zooms in to show the tracker, it is nearly impossible to see, a tiny speck compared to the gargantuan size of the ship. Her deft fingers tap in a command, and then we are looking at an expanse of the universe, a trajectory now lighting up between Earth and the alien craft, as well as its projected course.

"Damn," says Scott, impressed.

I'm inclined to agree.

"What are we waiting for then?" demands Sam. "Let's get our asses on a ship and go after them."

"I'm sorry, do you have a rocket stashed away in those wings of yours?" Tony shoots.

"Don't you?" Clint raises a brow. "With an oversized "STARK INDUSTRIES" painted on the side of it for the universe to see?"

As Tony's face contorts into a scowl, T'Challa says, "We will be heading into deep space and will be needing a lot more than just a rocket."

"We?" I raise my brow.

"These creatures took my people," T'Challa's spine straightens, his expression dark and vengeful, looking every inch a king. "I intend to pay them back in kind."

"I'm going too," Shuri declares.

"No, you're not," T'Challa and Okoye both say at once. Scott and I exchange looks of veiled amusement.

Shuri's face twists with outrage and open rebellion. "If _you_ are going, I'm-"

"I am the King," T'Challa cuts in.

"So that means you can do whatever you want, but I cannot?"

"No. It means I have a duty to avenge our people, to prevent history from repeating itself once more. You, as princess, have a duty to Wakanda, to protect our country while its king is absent," T'Challa places a hand on her shoulder. "We cannot leave Wakanda defenseless."

Shuri rolls her eyes but nods, looking entirely pissed about it. "Fine. But you will bring me back plenty of their technology for me to study." She jabs him in the chest with her pointer finger to drive her words home.

"Consider it done," T'Challa agrees.

"Speaking of which," Scott interjects. "Didn't you guys get your asses handed to you by these aliens? No offense, but they took the strongest freaking members of the Avengers, and your weapons didn't do squat. What's going to stop them from slaughtering us the moment we step foot on their ship?"

"Yeah, I'm not interested in a repeat of that," Rhodes winces.

"They won't know we're coming," I answer. "We'll have the element of surprise on our side."

"We need to wrap this up," Tony interjects, waving his hand over the conference table. "Every minute we stand here talking is another minute that our team doesn't have. We still don't know what these bastards could be doing to them, what they're after. If you have a ship, highness, then let's go."

"Time is against us," T'Challa nods. "Come, we will show you your upgrades onboard."

"Upgrades?" Tony raises an eyebrow.

Okoye flashes Shuri a look as the princess scoffs. "Your designs are good, Mr. Stark. Mine are better," she smirks, eyes dancing.

"Shuri," Okoye murmurs.

Tony shoots the small, young woman a skeptical look. "Put your tech where your mouth is, kid."

Shuri laughs. "I intend to. When you come back from outer space, feel free to come intern for me in my labs at Wakanda. We could use a coffee boy."

Clint lets out a loud snort as Sam coughs violently into his fist. I smirk openly, and the look on Tony's face is a mixture of intrigued, amused, and insulted.

"When I get back from space, _princess_ , you'll be the one eating your words and begging to intern for _me_."

A devilish grin unfurls on Shuri's face as her brother looks skyward like he's praying to his ancestors for strength. "Would you care to place a wager, Mr. Stark?"

* * *

 **a/n: I know many of you will probably be bummed Shuri isn't coming along on the rescue mission, and I am too, but I didn't feel like canonically, both T'Challa and Shuri would head into space with only their mother to lead and watch over Wakanda. Someone had to stay behind. But don't worry, that won't be the last we hear from the Wakandan princess. ;)**

 **As always, huge thanks to PippinStrange for being the world's best beta, and whose fangirling/support keeps me writing. If you guys haven't already, you seriously need to go read her fics Down Came the Rain (the inspiration that got me writing Avengers fanfiction) and Where They Go and all her other amazing work. She does not get enough credit, but her writing, her style, her characterizations are beyond incredible and are so so so worth the read. You da best, FIFFER!**

 **Now, on to the review replies to my incredible Review Squad! (Gosh I love you guys so much it's not even funny)**

* * *

Web-HeadSuperFan: Thank YOU! SO glad you love it!

DarylDixon'sLover: Ummm...no promises ;)

Ravenclawdiadem16: LOL right? I love her

PhoenixFlair13: LOVE the big brother/uncle relationship Bucky has developed with Peter in my universe. LOTS of that to come!

StarStepper: LOL :D You should probably prepare yourself for a bajillion mini cliffhangers in this fic. Hope this one makes up for it a little! lol!

LoonyLovegood1981: Lots of good questions/wonderings! All will be answered in the coming chapters! I'm so glad you are enjoying, and that you appreciate this review replies! I SO SO SO appreciate each and every review, so it is seriously my pleasure to individually respond to all of them. :) SO cool to hear you are from Germany! I've never been but would love to go someday. THanks for reading!

spidermanpls: :D Thank you! Lots and lots of practice I guess? :D

gandalf537: Ahhhhh thank you so much! I can seriously feel your excitement through your reviews! I'm so glad you are enjoying! I am loving writing new characters and povs and playing with the MCU! It is beyond fun

readingisapriority: Thanks so much! I loved all those parts as well!

spiderboi: THanks! Will do!

Andy Frost: Thank you! And no you did not miss anything, I promise. Bruce and Thor's situation is a big part of this plot, so the answers to where they've been and how Bruce got on Earth and where is Thor now will allllll be answered throughout the fic! :)

Nathissica: Eeee thank you so much! I could honestly write Shuri for days. She will definitely have to come back in a later chapter, and I wish she could have gone with the others, but it just didn't work out in my head. So glad that you are enjoying it so far!

Lorraine44: Wow wow wow! Thank you so so much for your kind words! I am so glad you are enjoying it, and that you've loved the other two fics as well! I try very hard to make something as canon as possible and as wildly entertaining as I can make it! Thanks again!

Seawell: Ahhh thank you! I have definitely become much fonder of him through writing for sure!

Vivienne: OMG THANK YOU! I am so glad you are enjoying my verse!

MsSoraya: Eeee thank you! So cool that I kept you entertained at work, and I am so excited to hear about your excitement regarding this fic! And no such thing as a too long review. I absolutely love reviews, so thank you! And you got it right! Peter was picked because they needed to heal his shoulder. Why? Will be revealed soon... ;)

Shoyzz: Eee thanks! You got it! Boi needed to be unhooked! No comment on the Guardians...they may...they may not...time will tell. ;) LOVE SHuri. Will definitely include her in future chapters for sure! Thanks for your review! It was a delight as always!

10-lanterns-and-a-dreamcatcher: Thank you! So glad you are enjoying!

Guest: WOW thank you so much! I love hearing about new readers binging my series. (STILL can't believe I am writing a series!) THank you!

Jeyfeather1234: Interesting choice of murder weapon! And no romantic relationship between May and Tony. That comment was just May acknowledging what a large role Tony has in Peter's life, and how much she knows he cares about him, and that he is really the only father figure Peter has left. :)

cargumentluv: Eeee thank you very very much! I love it too and I love hearing about everyone's excitement!

Guest: thank you so much!

monochre: Welcome to the club! Wish we had t-shirts! lol! Ahh I'm so glad you love this series! Thank you so much for your review and I hope you enjoy this one just as much!

Evelris: You got it right about Peter's shoulder! This fic will definitely have lots of cliffies and suspense, but I hope you enjoy it!

* * *

 **Guys, you are beyond amazing. I love hearing all your thoughts and your love for this series. Means the absolute world to me. I know you still have lots of questions, but don't worry! All will be revealed in time!**

 **Coming Up:**

 **Chapter Four: Solitary Man**

 **Steve and Bruce have a conversation, and then the tables are turned as the captured heroes find themselves in an unexpected situation...**


	4. Solitary Man

**Chapter Four: Solitary Man**

* * *

 **...**

 **...**

 **Steve Rogers**

I roll my shoulders, cracking my neck from side to side, trying to ease some of the tension in my muscles, but it's no use. The ache only deepens, spreading from my shoulders down to my lower back, a persistent, tightening strain as if gravity itself is pressing down on me.

Shifting my hips and finding a new spot against the black stone wall I am sitting against does nothing either.

"Think we could ask for some memory foam pillows?"

My lips curve, glancing over to my left where Banner sits, looking as stiff and uncomfortable as I feel.

"Seriously, I am getting too old for this," Bruce winces, pressing his hands against his lower back with a quiet groan.

"I'm older than you are," I remind him.

He snorts. "Yeah, Cap, I don't think being perfectly preserved at the prime of your life counts."

I look at him then, really look at him. The lines on his face have deepened in the years he's been missing, more grey peppering his hair. Bruce looks weary, and more than just physically.

The kind of weary a soldier gets when they've seen too much, when they've been tossed into battle one too many times, each fight chipping off a small piece and leaving a scar in its place.

Banner's eyes meet mine, his expression shifting. "What's with the look, Steve? I feel like you're either about to confess to a vicious murder I missed while I was gone, or we're about to have a heart to heart about all our issues. Which is it?"

I raise a brow. "What if I tell you it's both?"

"Then I owe Tony two hundred dollars."

At my perplexed look, he adds, "He always said your dark side would rival Natasha's whenever it decided to make an appearance. I bet against him."

I let out a quiet chuckle, shaking my head. "No murder confession."

"A heart to heart then."

"Can't it just be a conversation?"

"When you're imprisoned on an alien ship heading deep into the cosmos towards certain death, it's never just a conversation."

"Fair point."

"What's on your mind, Cap?"

"I heard about your debrief with Nat and Tony," I shift again, moving away from a curve of the stone wall digging into my spine. "With what's happened the past couple years."

"Ah."

"It sounded…"

"Insane? Like an acid trip gone wrong? Like all that radiation finally cracked my brain open and spilled out all the crazy stored inside?" he asks with a wry smile.

"Something like that."

"Yeah, don't I know it," Bruce scrubs at his eyes. "But it happened. All of it."

"And Thor?"

The last I'd seen of the god of thunder had been his spectacular imprint on Stark's lawn in front of the compound.

"I don't know," his frown turns grim, his eyes troubled. "Like I told Tony, the last thing I remember was our ship being attacked, and the next thing I know I'm in a crater in Kentucky with the world's worst migraine and no idea of how I got there."

"Attacked by what?" I ask, brows furrowing together.

"That's the thing, Cap, I can't remember for the life of me," Banner presses his fingers hard into his temples, his eyes scrunching shut. "I've been trying. But it's a big ball of nothing followed by a hulk-sized headache."

The soft murmuring conversation to my right stops.

"If we weren't locked in these cells, I could help," Wanda says quietly.

Bruce stiffens, his eyes locking on her. "No offense, but you aren't someone I want poking around in my head again."

"Bruce," I mutter, but Wanda's face is calm, unsurprised.

"I'm truly sorry for what I did to you. But that was a long time ago, and things have changed. _I_ have changed. And I've earned the trust of the Avengers," she tells him.

"You haven't earned mine," Bruce replies. "Not yet."

"That is hardly fair," interjects Vision. "Even before you fled in the quinjet, Wanda fought alongside you against Ultron and more than adequately proved herself trustworthy."

"I trust her to fight next to me," Banner's gaze shifts from Vision back to Wanda. "But what you did...manipulating me so that I-"

His jaw tightens. "That's not the kind of thing I can just put aside so I can let you go strolling through my mind like it's Disneyland. I've gotten past it, really, I have, but my brain is off limits, ok kid?"

Wanda nods. "I understand. The offer still stands, if you change your mind."

I look over at Bucky, who has remained silent throughout the exchange. He's leaning against the far wall of his cell, his body relaxed but his eyes carefully watching the unconscious teenager in the cell beside him.

I've seen that look on his face before, a long time ago, in what feels like a different world. That look he would give me when he thought I wasn't paying attention, when he worried about what would happen if he wasn't there to protect me from the bullies. The protective, big brother look, back when I was the little one.

Bucky's gaze suddenly becomes sharper, alert, and I look towards Peter's cell to see the kid pushing himself up with a woozy exhale of breath, his eyes blinking tiredly. Yawning, he looks around blearily and says, "What did I miss?"

"A whole lot of nothing," Banner answers, his eyes looking Peter over.

The kid frowns, eyebrows knitting together as he rolls his right shoulder, his left hand coming up to press against the bandages.

"How's your shoulder?" I ask.

"Uh, better," he replies with surprise, looking up at me. "Like, a lot better. I usually heal fast, but not this fast."

"It must have something to do with the composition of your bandages," Vision peers at him, his eyes narrowing on Peter's shoulder. "The organic fibers are actively working to suture the wound shut using a combination of your cells and the living tissue present in the bands."

Peter's eyes widen, looking from the android to the greyish fabric across his shoulder. "Wait, this stuff is _alive_?"

"Very much so. That is to say, it isn't cognizant or capable of any kind of consciousness, but the threads comprising the bandages are in fact living cells. Perhaps made in part from our captor's skin, considering the durability, thickness, and healing factors they-"

"Vis," Wanda interrupts.

Vision stops, looking at her questioningly as she just shakes her head.

Peter looks like he's going to be sick as he pokes at the edges of the bandages with obvious disgust.

"I'd leave those on, kid," Bruce advises.

"But it's-their _skin_ ," he exclaims, horrified.

"And it's healing you. Just... try not to think about it."

Peter shoots him a look. "Would _you_ be able to not think about it?"

Banner's lips quirk up. "Kid, I-"

" _Wait_."

Vision's tone has us all whipping our heads in his direction. He's on his feet, eyes trained on the ceiling of his cell, his posture rigid.

I follow suit, my muscles going stiff and heart beginning to pound with anticipated readiness. "What is it?"

"Something has opened."

"Opened?"

"The metal has shifted on a near microscopic level in all of our cells," Vision doesn't look away from the ceiling. "They are releasing a gas."

The others shoot to their feet.

"A gas? What kind of gas?" demands Bruce.

"Like the exterminating kind?" Peter's voice shoots up in pitch.

"It is difficult to say," Vision answers. "I am unable to recognize many of the foreign compounds and elements within it. But if I had to guess, it seems like it carries an incapacitating agent."

"Wanda, can you-" but the question halts in my throat as I turn to her.

Her eyelids are drooping heavily, and she leans against the front wall of her cell, her fingers twisting as red light flickers around her. Whatever's in the gas is working quickly, already muddling her senses enough to where she can't focus on her power.

"I'm...trying," Wanda says, frowning as her telekinetic energy wavers feebly.

"What do we do? Cap, what do we do?" Peter's panicked expression and widening eyes make my drive come into sharp, clear focus. He suddenly starts to hold his breath, his cheeks bulging slightly as he refuses to breathe.

"Stay calm," I order, my authority ringing in the tenor of my voice even as exhaustion settles over me like a heavy blanket.

"When you wake up," I make sure to say when, not if, "evaluate your surroundings. Fight back or run if you can."

Bruce slides to the floor as Bucky braces his hands against the glass to remain standing. I'm starting to sway, and Wanda's head is tipping forward, Peter's eyes getting even rounder as he looks from her to me to Bucky, still holding his breath.

"They want us alive," I remind them as I place a hand on the glass barrier to support myself, my own eyes drooping. "For whatever reason. We'll be ok. It'll...it'll be ok."

I don't know that. Can't know that. But I say it anyways.

Wanda and Bruce hit the floor, eyes rolling back, Bucky sinks to his knees, and even Vision is on all fours, fighting to remain conscious.

"Escape...if you can," my brow creases with the effort of keeping my eyes open as I let myself slide to the floor.

Peter's form is blurring, the cell around me tilting and swaying, lulling me into the darkness, and I hear his forced gasp as he runs out of air.

"I'll find you, kid," I hear Bucky murmur, his words slurring together. "If...they separate...I'll find…"

There's a muffled thump, and I know Bucky has lost the fight to stay awake. I am nearly gone, my eyes seeing black now instead of red, and I can hear Peter's frightened tirade of "shitshitshitshitshit" begin to trail off as he, too, succumbs to unconsciousness.

My fingers jerk against the floor, the muscles spasming in an attempt to jolt me back awake, but the gas released into my cell is too potent, too heavy, and it drags me down, down...down...do….

* * *

Birds are screeching, an echoing, distant sound, layered with the fluttering buzzing of insects, the repetitive amphibious croak of something nearby, and the trickling sound of running water.

My brow furrows at the foreign noises, at the hot, humid air pressing down against my sweat covered skin, and my fingers curl into something damp and spongy.

The heaviness dragging down my eyelids and limbs vanish in an abrupt rush, my body jerking awake as if I'd been slapped across the face. My blood rushes through my veins as my heart begins to pound, all my muscles tensing at once.

I open my eyes.

Light filters through a thick canopy high above me, creating a pattern of shadowy splotches intermingling with star shaped bursts of light, dots of pollen and flickering insects illuminated as they pass through the golden beams.

I bolt upright, my head rushing and throbbing slightly at the abrupt change of position as my hands brace my body against the mossy ground.

I'm in a jungle.

I blow out a long breath as I turn my gaze around me, searching the wide trunked trees, the densely layered plant life stretching out in every direction. It looks remarkably similar to the jungles of Earth, a fact I note with relief, and the air I breathe, though uncomfortably damp and weighty and smelling like soil and mildew, is filled with plenty of oxygen.

Eyes still scanning the area around me, I push myself up to my feet, the toe of my boot brushing against something hard and metal. I look down, going stiff with surprise at the sight of my shield resting against the moss covered ground, half hidden beneath the wide fronds of a fern.

My gaze narrows on it suspiciously, and as I crouch carefully beside it, I search for any sign of a snare or line, but find none. Tentatively, I pick it up, and when nothing happens, I straighten, snapping the shield onto the holster on my back.

There's no sign of the others, and I push away the stab of concern I feel at the revelation.

I'm alone.

Alone in what I know has to be an alien jungle, no matter how remarkably similar it looks to my planet. And if I'm here, if I'm alive, then the others have to be too.

Frowning, I turn in a circle, scanning the trees above, but I see no damaged branches, no torn parachute clinging to the canopy, no visible sign of how I got to the drop point.

What are these aliens playing at?

Why leave me here? Why give me back my greatest weapon? Are the others on their own as well? Are they armed? Or did a different fate befall them, one far more terrible than waking up isolated in a foreign landscape?

Stop. I cut off that line of thought, the dark images flooding my mind evaporating at my mental command. I can't afford to wander down that path, not with my team's lives on the line. I have to work under the assumption that they found themselves in similar positions to mine, and the best course of action is to search for high ground, to look for any sign of them so that we can regroup.

I have no idea what the aliens want from us, why they'd take us from our cells to drop us here, but like Wanda said, they made their hostile intentions fairly clear on Earth and on their ship. Whatever they want is bad news, and I have a team of people, including an inexperienced teenager, who need to be found.

If anything happens to that kid, Stark will forgive me. Somehow I feel like the debacle of keeping the truth of what happened to his parents from Tony will pale in comparison to what he will do if Peter doesn't make it back.

And the guilt would probably kill me.

I steel myself. I didn't go through saving the kid twice just to let him die on my watch. It's not going to happen. No one is dying on this planet, not if I can help it. I'm going to find the others, and I'm going to get them home.

Searching through the bushes, I find the source of the running water I've been hearing since I regained consciousness. A stream is barely visible beneath the thick layer of short palms and plants, but my eyes follow its winding path through the trees.

I follow it, moving upstream where I know I will find higher ground and a larger water source.

My body remains tense, my gaze alert as I search the jungle around me, listening and looking for any sign of our alien captors or a wandering Avenger. I'll stay as silent as I can, travel as quickly and efficiently as I am able until I find something; a trail, a track, a sign that my friends are still alive.

The air is filled with sounds of life, but no familiar voice or footsteps beyond my own. I take that as a good sign, that the others are smart enough not to yell out for help and draw attention to themselves.

Stay quiet, move fast, remain alert, I tell myself, sending the order out into my mind as if the others can hear me, too.

I'll find you.

* * *

 **Peter Parker**

 _"HELLOOOO?!"_

My cupped hands drop from my masked mouth, and I wince at the raw ache in my throat from shouting too many times.

Clearly no one is going to answer.

I am on my own. On my own and in a freaking alien jungle. Which I can totally handle and _not_ freak out about, because I'm an Avenger, and I'm Spiderman, and I got this.

Yep. Totally got this.

Not freaking out.

I tap the side of my mask, which I'd put on immediately after waking up, grateful the aliens had let me keep it. "Karen? You there?"

No response. Not that I was really expecting one. The AI had been absent since I regained consciousness aboard the alien ship. Other than no Karen, though, it looks like my suit's capabilities are surprisingly still intact.

Alright, list of positives:

1\. I still have my suit, and it works. Mostly.

2\. I'm in a jungle, and not strapped to a table being injected with an alien parasite

3\. I'm still alive (that maybe should have been number one)

4\. The aliens that took me are nowhere to be seen.

5\. My shoulder doesn't hurt hardly at all anymore.

Ok, good. Lots of positives.

I startle at a loud screech nearby, nearly shooting out of my skin as I lunge for cover behind a wide trunked tree. After a moment of waiting, my heart hammering in my chest, I relax. Just a bird or animal or something.

List of negatives:

1\. I'm on an alien planet, ALONE.

2\. No Karen, no way to contact Earth or the rest of the Avengers.

3\. Still have no idea what the aliens want or why they dumped me here.

4\. For all I know, everything on this planet wants to kill me.

5\. It is hot as shit, and my suit is already sticking to my sweat plastered skin.

6\. I don't know if my teammates are dead, still aboard the ship, or here in the jungle (Again, maybe that should have been number one. Geez, Peter, priorities).

Staying calm. I am staying calm.

I really, really hope the aliens didn't just maroon me on the nearest planet because they deemed me the weakest and sickliest of the bunch. God, I can just picture it, them tossing me in a jungle like nah, this one's lame, and zooming off into space with the rest of the Avengers still locked in their cells. Me, all alone on this planet, with no way to get home.

I shudder. Nope. That tangent has got to stop. I wasn't the only one gassed into unconsciousness, so it stands to reason that everybody else is somewhere here with me.

But why did the aliens go through all the trouble to attack and kidnap us only to drop us off in a jungle? Doesn't add up.

"Ok, Parker, get a grip," I shake out my arms, doing a little jog in place to loosen up my tensed muscles. "Remember what Cap said. Evaluate your surroundings. Fight back or run like hell."

Well, I'm in a very Earth-like jungle.

And there's nothing really to fight back at the moment, or run away from. So….now what?

An idea hits me. I tap the side of the spider emblem on my chest, and with a soft whir of noise, it detaches itself to hover in front of my face. "Droney! Man, am I glad to see you right now."

It waits for instructions, little fans whirring.

"Oh. Right," I rub the back of my masked head. "Um...ok, how about you head up above the canopy and look around for me? See if you can see any of the Avengers or the aliens, or...something useful I guess."

It zooms off towards the top of the trees, a beam of light catching it and reflecting off its metal surface before it vanishes up into the branches.

As I wait for it to return, I glance around me. I'm in a clearing, the soil damp and squishy beneath my feet, the huge roots of the nearby trees weaving in and out of it in an expanse of ankle twisting tendrils. The plants are surprisingly similar to Earth's plants, though I've never been in a jungle before. Hey, I've seen Planet Earth and its sequel on Netflix, so I have a good idea of what tropical habitats are supposed to look like.

It's kind of...comforting, I guess. Like if I wanted to, I could easily pretend that I am on a mission back home and not on an alien planet by myself.

A faint metallic whir reaches my ears, and then Droney is descending through the branches of the trees, hovering in front of me for a brief moment before returning to its dock on my chest.

"Alright, buddy, what do you got for me?" I murmur as it uploads the images and scans it had recorded, the stats and recordings appearing in a small window on my lens display. "Ok. We got jungle, jungle, jungle, and hey, look at that, more jungle. How big is this place?"

The thick green blanket of trees seem to stretch toward every horizon, and Droney's scans picked up no electronic signals, no sign of intelligent life. The thermal scans are a bust too, with the planet's hot temperatures, dense humidity, and amount of wildlife. Even the trees are putting off a significant temperature.

I sigh. Great. So much for that. Well, at least there is currently no sign of the aliens who'd kidnapped me. That is something.

Pressing my middle and index fingers into the palm of my right hand, I fire off a web to one of the tall, wide branches of a nearby tree. The line retracts, my body flying up as it does, and I swing forward to crouch on the wooden ledge, the leaves shaking at the impact of my body landing on the branch.

A blinking alert has me looking down.

Oh shit.

 _Shit_.

My suit contains a limited amount of web fluid that can be stored in the small, cylindrical containers. I'm already at sixty percent capacity, having used the other forty during the fight in Manhattan. And once I'm out of web fluid, I am _out_. No swinging home or by the school or by Mr. Stark's tower to pick up some more.

I let out a shaky breath, taking a moment to calm my breathing, to drive away the cresting wave of panic that would very much like to crash down on me.

It's fine.

Sixty percent? That's more than half. I'm good.

What better environment for me to need to conserve my web fluid than a jungle? Plenty of branches and trees to leap across, and hey, there are always vines to swing from like I'm a more vibrantly dressed Tarzan.

Pushing off the branch with both my hands and feet, I leap nimbly up to seize a much higher branch, using my momentum to swing my body forward into the air until my feet hit the branch of a neighboring tree.

Piece of cake.

Actually, this is easier than swinging through Queens. It's like a personalized jungle gym. I keep my momentum going, swinging and leaping and jumping and landing and running across the huge branches in a rush of smooth, acrobatic moves.

"Hey, I think I'm getting the hang of- _oof!_ "

My foot hits a limb covered in slippery green moss, and in a stomach lurching movement, my leg drops out from under me, and I tip forward, another branch slamming into my gut. It knocks the wind out of me, and then I am falling.

"Crap!"

Several twigs and thin branches slap into me as I fall, my hands scrabbling to grab something, anything, and then there! My palm sticks to a wide bough, halting my descent in a harsh snap that has the tendons in my injured shoulder straining.

Panting, I pull myself up and take a moment to lean against the trunk of the tree.

"This _sucks_."

* * *

 **A/n: Welcome to the jungle. :)**

 **Definitely one of my favorite chapters I've written for this!**

 **Special thanks, as always to my beta and fiffer, PippinStrange, the reason this series exists, my constant source of support and inspiration! Go read Where They Go, RIGHT NOW if you are still hurting from Infinity War (WHO ISNT?!)**

 **This would be a great moment to tell you guys that an amazing song that inspires a heavy amount of this story is Welcome to the Jungle by Tommee Profit featuring Fleurie. Look it up, you will not regret it. Completely sets the tone for the rest of the fic.**

 **So the plot thickens! Our heroes are no longer on an alien ship, but a planet, isolated, with no idea what their fates could be or why the aliens would do such a thing. Also you got a snippet of the ending to Thor: Ragnarok. Bruce remembers being attacked on Thor's ship, then waking up in a crater on earth. Wha** **t happened there is a big part of the plot, a mystery that will slowly unfold. So to those of you with questions, I have no answers for you yet. ;)**

 **Those of you who worried about Bucky switching back to the Winter Soldier mind control, fear not! During the events of SIlent Night, the Wakandan scientists found a way to remove his brainwashing, so he's all clear!**

 **And yes, expect lots more Wanda POVs to come! I adore writing her and super appreciate everyone's comments on how I wrote her the last chapter! She is one of my favorites, and as a sometimes moody young woman with a twin brother, I can very much identify with her. ;)**

* * *

Review Replies!

Web-HeadSuperFan: THANK YOU! :D

gandalf537: Thank you oh so much! I absolutely ADORE Wanda, and I am psyched to keep writing her. Shuri was so so fun to write for too! I am so glad you are enjoying it so far!

sparklydog9: Ooooh lots of good guesses! You'll know soon! ;)

faithandfamily1st: Thank you! I feel like I've been improving as well, so I'm glad you think so!

StarStepper: Why thank you! :D

cargumentluv: Ahhhh thanks so much! :D Playing with all the characters has been so fun. As to your last question...I cannot say. ;)

Guest: Eeeeh thank you! Shuri and Tony are so fun. Hope you enjoyed the update!

Heroes21: Dude, me TOO. It wasn't something I planned on when I first started writing Paint it Black, but something that evolved within it and I can't wait to keep it growing!

Evelris: Thanks so much! :)

GinaBoo: Hullo again! Welcome back to the review squad! So happy to see you. :) And I'm so glad you are enjoying it so far!

PippinStrange: :D Eeeee thanks fiffer!

Guest: You'll have to wait and see.

Nathissica: Ahhh the Infinity War bruises are a real thing. Ouch, man. This is definitely healing for me to write. XD and I can't wait for more Wanda and Vision!

NyxieDust: Omg thank you! Still crazy to me that I have fans!

LoonyLovegood1981: Thank you so much! Glad you like the previews! I'll keep them coming!

edenabigail: Wow, thanks so much!

JeyFeather1234: Lol thank you! I very much enjoyed Shuri giving Tony a hard time too. ;)

Shoyzz: Not sure if I will do Peter's POV on that part, perhaps as a flashback or bonus chapter later. But THANK YOU! :D Your reviews are always a delight

Vivienne: THank you very much! Glad I can keep you guys on your toes!

Snowflake: Thanks! :)

SummerMistedDragon: :D

* * *

 **Thanks as always to my amazing review squad! I love hearing from you guys and will try to update soon! Leave a comment below!**

 **Coming up:**

 **Chapter Five: Down in the Valley**

 **A reunification deep within the jungle, a rescue mission underway, PTSD, a serious conversation about ice cream (wait, what?), a trap is sprung, and a horrifying realization.**

 **Curious? ;)**


	5. Down in the Valley

**Chapter Five: Down in the Valley**

* * *

 **...**

 **...**

 **Wanda Maximoff**

 _Slap_!

I stifle a vicious growl of frustration as I smack another damn insect off of my bare arm. Even on an alien planet I am being eaten alive by bugs.

I wipe the back of my fingerless glove covered hand across my sweat slicked forehead, then tuck a few stray hairs back into my ponytail. This godforsaken planet is hot. Hot and humid and full of bugs and... a thousand times preferable to the glass cage they'd been keeping me in.

Here at least I can move. Here I am not fending off the panic inducing memories of my time on the Raft.

My green army jacket is tied around my waist, and though it is tempting to put it back on to provide more protection against the biting insects, the heat has me grateful that I was wearing a tanktop beneath it when Vision and I returned to New York to help fight off the aliens.

I press a hand against the smooth bark of a tree as I step over a particularly huge root, my booted feet landing with a squish into the damp, dark soil.

I am about to take another step when I suddenly still.

It's silent.

It hasn't been even slightly quiet since I woke up in this jungle, a cacophony of organic noise filling my ears in every moment. But surrounding me as thick as the canopy above, is a weighty silence.

Slipping into a crouch, I press my body against the slight hollow beside the huge, arching tree root and its trunk, making myself as small and hidden as possible. My eyes scan the foliage and trees around me, searching.

Animals only go quiet in the presence of a predator, and after I'd begun moving through the jungle, the wildlife had clearly not been threatened by me.

Something else is here.

My ears strain to hear the squelch of a footfall on moist earth, the snap of a branch, the brush against a leaf. But all I can hear is my own heart pounding inside my chest. I curl and uncurl my fingers, holding them out on either side of me. I don't call my power forth, not yet, not when the red light of it would reveal me, but I keep it ready, nearly bursting beneath my skin.

A long, agonizing moment passes.

Gradually, the din of the jungle returns, the supposed threat having passed.

I loose a breath, slapping the insect landing on my neck as I straighten and turn.

Grey-blue eyes are inches from my face.

Barely stifling a scream, I throw up my hands, red waves of power arching up beneath me-

" _Vis_?" I gasp out in disbelief, brows furrowed, panting as I halt the movement of my arms, my power frozen around me.

Vision stands before me, his cape fluttering in some nonexistent breeze, looking utterly unsurprised to see me, though his strange eyes dart from the red energy swirling around me then back to my face.

"Wanda."

My name on his lips seems to break some kind of spell, my power evaporating, my footsteps carrying me forward. I throw my arms around him, clinging to him tightly. After a hesitant moment, I feel his arms encircle me in return.

I'm breathing heavily, my throat burning, and I realize my arms are trembling.

It hadn't hit me just how afraid I was until I saw him. I had tried to ignore the crescendo of fear and despair that had been steadily building since the moment we'd been taken. Had stifled old, cowardly urges when I'd found myself alone in the jungle.

And somehow I go from keeping it together, to crippling panic, to bone melting relief all in the span of a handful of seconds.

"Are you hurt?" Vision asks softly, his breath warm against my hair.

He's here. He's here and he's safe and I'm not alone.

"No," I finally manage to say, pulling back to scan his face. "Are you?"

"I am uninjured," he assures me, reaching a hand to tuck a stray tendril of hair behind my ear.

"How did you find me?" I ask, searching his eyes.

"I...don't know. The probability of us having remotely close drop points in this expanse of jungle is very low. So, I suppose luck was a factor in that equation," Vision gives me a small smile. "That, and I've been flying through the jungle for approximately seven hours."

"Seven? I think I've been awake for maybe three. Have you seen any sign of the others?"

"No," his smile turns grim. "Though I'm sure they can't be far, if I was able to find you as quickly as I did."

I hardly think seven hours qualifies as quick, but I don't care. I'm just so relieved to see him. Sighing heavily, I embrace him once more, squeezing my eyes shut as I pretend for a moment that we have just extended our trip to the jungles of South America.

Vision's hand brushes against my hair. "I missed you, too," he whispers.

I don't want the moment to end, but it does. Finally stepping away, I cast another glance around us before asking, "Why did they separate us? Why leave us here?"

"I don't think they did."

A chill skitters across my overly warm skin. "What do you mean? Have you seen them?"

"No, but I've seen signs of them," Vision glances back the way he came. "Along with some rather disturbing sights."

"Like what?"

Vision hesitates, like he doesn't want to frighten me, but before I can demand that he tell me, he discloses, "Traps. All across the jungle."

My blood runs cold. "What kind of traps?"

"Comprised of the same foreign metal and advanced technology that was on their ship, all of varying types and sizes, but equally deadly. Some look as if they were set a very long time ago, while others seem more recently placed."

Vision's expression fills me with foreboding, and suddenly I don't want to hear what he has to say next. He can see the hesitation in my face, but grips me gently by my shoulders.

"Traps meant for us."

* * *

 **Tony Stark**

Well, shit.

That little Leia bunned princess actually _did_ put her tech where her mouth was.

"How old is your sister again?" I ask, turning to T'Challa.

"She is sixteen," the king answers, a proud glint in his eyes. "Extraordinarily intelligent, a prolific engineer and inventor, and perhaps as humble as you are."

I pick up the vibranium lined collapsible bow, examining the mechanism at the center of its arc and the release that will separate it into two curved blades. "I believe it," I murmur, running my thumb along the smooth edge.

"Mine," Clint says from behind me, plucking it out of my hands and heading across the hull of the ship without breaking a stride.

T'Challa is smiling. "Shuri has always been ahead of her time. Always hungry for more, always seeking ways to improve her designs."

"She did all this herself?" I gesture to the mountain of equipment and weapons lining the wall and workbench.

The king nods, his hands clasped behind his back. "Even my own suit."

"And you have her hidden away in Wakanda like an untapped diamond mine," I note, pulling up some of her blueprints on the large holographic computer screen.

I can feel his eyes narrow on me. "Diamond mines have a history coated in blood, Mr. Stark. I will not have my sister exploited by the corruption of this world. Shuri's inventions are used for the betterment of Wakanda."

"They could be used for the betterment of the world," I counter, flipping through her many designs. This kid is a certified genius, and given her age, I would even go so far as to admit her superiority in engineering. Goddamn this is impressive stuff.

So impressive, it may warrant a visit to Wakanda in the near future so I can see her in action. Although, with the look T'Challa is giving me right now, I may just have to bribe the princess with frappuccinos to come look over things at Stark Industries. Something tells me bribery will work well with her, as will the opportunity to sneak around her older brother's disapproval.

God, I'm a terrible influence.

"I recommend finding your seat for the takeoff, Tony," T'Challa says, his voice a little less friendly than it was a moment ago.

Raising my palms towards him, I concede with a small smile that lets him know I won't press the matter of his sister.

At least, not right now.

I have bigger issues to deal with.

Like the fact that the only two seats unoccupied are what is clearly the captain's seat, and one next to Scott Lang.

Screw that. I start to head for the front of the ship when T'Challa passes on my left with a perfectly arched eyebrow. Damn it. Scowling at the king's back, I catch the eye of his general Okoye in the seat to his right, her eyes narrowed at me.

This is why I am not a diplomat. I'm pissing off all the foreigners, and it's only the beginning of the mission.

Sighing in defeat, I take the seat next to Scott and buckle the straps across my waist and chest.

The layout of this ship is remarkably similar to a quinjet, but broader, more spacious, and, I admit grudgingly, superior technology. Given a half hour, I bet that I'd be able to learn all the tricks this show pony has to offer.

"Stark," Scott acknowledges after a moment of awkward silence.

"Lando," I nod back. "How's the ant colony? Heard you guys had a nasty encounter with a four year old carrying a magnifying glass last week. Hope the women and children made it out ok."

"Is being a douchebag written in your DNA or something?"

"All from my father's side, unfortunately."

"You know, I don't have to be here," Scott reminds me.

"The straps locked around your chest as the ship takes off out of Earth's atmosphere kind of says otherwise," I crack my neck from side to side, fishing through my jacket pocket to place my sunglasses firmly on my face.

Natasha peers around her chair in front of me to give me a look. _Stop antagonizing him_ , her expression says.

I wave her off. Fine, I'll behave. Nevermind that getting under Scott's skin was one of the few things that could have distracted me enough from the nauseating panic roiling in my gut.

As far as takeoffs go, this one is smooth, T'Challa's Wakandan ship, outfitted especially for deep space travel, living up to its impressive reputation as we glide up, up, up above the clouds.

It doesn't matter that the ship flies like a dream. It could be as pleasant as spending an afternoon in a hammock on a beach in Tahiti. Just knowing the destination, the journey we will have to take to get there, what we might find-

My eyes squeeze shut beneath the sunglasses, my teeth clenching together. The dull growl of the ship's engine makes the seat beneath me vibrate ever so slightly. Quiet. Smooth. Nothing like the last time I soared straight up through Earth's atmosphere.

That trip had been a barrage of noise ricocheting through my battered suit; the scream of the nuke, the thunderous, growling roar of my thrusters, the wind buffeting the metal around me, all swelling to a climactic blast until the world fell suddenly and sharply silent around me.

Until I soared straight into space, facing a massive army poised to demolish my planet, all surging for the portal that grew smaller behind me. The silence had been a thousand times more deafening than the noise enveloping me in the atmosphere, pressing into my ears, condensing around me as everything went quiet and cold…

My knuckles are white from my near painful grip on the arms of my chair, beads of cold sweat forming on my neck. I breathe through my nose, willing my heartbeat to pound just a little less violently, but it doesn't oblige me.

An endless expanse of black. Icy and soundless and filled with a thousand and one hostile forces ready to snuff out the life of my planet.

Ready to take everything from me.

"You know I got a job at a Baskin Robbins before this?"

Slowly, I turn my head to look at Scott, who nods, lips quirked to one side.

"Yeah, not my finest moment. You can see why I'd turn back to a life of crime before becoming Ant-man. What about you? Unfinest moments. Go."

"Ok first off, Baskin Robbins, really? You couldn't at least get a job at a decent ice cream joint like a Haagen Dazs or Ben and Jerry's?"

"Hey, Gold Medal Ribbon is a national treasure. And the only reason you're partial to Ben and Jerry's is because they have an ice cream flavor named after you."

"Irrelevant. Second, unfinest moments? I don't have them."

Sam, Natasha, Clint, and Rhodes all let out various sounds of coughs or snorts, and I glare at the back of their heads. "Hey, this is a private conversation."

"I like Gold Medal Ribbon," Sam interjects, half turning his head towards us.

"Too much caramel," Natasha says simply.

Rhodes frowns. "Whoa, too far Romanov. There's no such thing as too much caramel."

"Laura once ate an entire jar of caramel we bought from a Ghiradelli's in one sitting when she was pregnant with Cooper," adds Clint.

This is derailing fast.

"I'm sorry, did I ask for all your opinions on ice cream flavors? We're on a mission here, people. A little decorum, if it isn't too much to ask," I call over them.

The ship falls into an amused silence as we hurtle through the last turbulent jolt of our planet's atmosphere and glide smoothly into a dark abyss littered with stars.

My breathing is more even, and though I don't relax my grip on the arms of my seat, the painful tightness in my chest has alleviated. Damn, when did this group of people start to know me so well? Ridiculous as the distraction had been, it had worked. It had taken the edge off.

I'll thank them later. Somehow. .

My eyes search the stars, knowing that our people are out there somewhere, deep in the void. My team. My friends. My overeager, too good for this world intern that always seems to find himself in trouble.

We're coming, kid.

We're coming.

"Gold Medal Ribbon is shit," says Okoye.

* * *

 **Peter Parker**

Not having Karen _sucks_.

I didn't realize just how many features are inactive without her presence, or maybe they are active and I have no idea how to access them.

Like air conditioning, for instance.

It stands to reason that if my suit is supplied with a heater, it also carries a way to cool my body down in high temperatures. I'm almost positive it has one, but I can't figure out how to make it work. I've tried asking, tried code words that could maybe trigger it into turning on, tried messing with Droney and tapping various spots across my body.

Nothing.

The only thing I have going for me at the moment is the sweat resistant material the suit is made of. My skin is overheated, no doubt slick with sweat beneath my mask and suit, but the material remains light, breathable, not sticking uncomfortably to my body or causing any chafing.

But it's freaking hot.

I need water, badly. It's ironic to me that the air can be so humid, so dense with moisture, and yet my throat and tongue feel drier than a desert.

I keep my mask lifted up above my nose and mouth so that breathing is a little easier, but I don't remove it entirely. The lenses help me focus in an environment that is nothing but sensory overload. The sounds, the smells, the colors and overlapping, interweaving plant life...it's a lot to take in.

I've been swinging through the trees for hours, using my webs as sparingly as possible, but I haven't found anything. No evil aliens. No signs of civilization. No Avengers.

I might've been panicking if I wasn't so exhausted and thirsty.

Traveling in this heat makes my body feel sluggish, heavy, like I'm moving through warm, murky water instead of the air. And, it occurs to me as I lean against the trunk of a tree, my legs stretched out in front of me on the smooth branch, that I haven't eaten or drank anything since being kidnapped.

The aliens never brought us food or water, not that I would have trusted anything they tossed into my cell, but still. No wonder I am so tired and woozy feeling. My stomach is completely and painfully empty, past even the point of growling its discomfort.

I let out a long sigh, letting my head fall back against the tree with a dull thud. I'm hot. I'm thirsty. I'm tired. I'm grouchy. And I'm BORED.

I thought this alien jungle excursion would be nothing but tense chases and a constant state of fear and panic. Maybe it would be if I wasn't feeling so out of it. But nothing has happened. I feel like I've made zero progress, except to wear myself out.

Something brushes against my shoulder, a tickling sensation that makes my arm spasm. I look down, eyes narrowing, then widening.

The grey bandages covering my shoulder are... _molting_.

I watch in morbid fascination as the fabric begins to shrivel up and turn wispy, paper thin, the edges curling and crumpling as their grip on me loosens. Chunks of it begin to flutter down to the jungle floor far below me like flakes of ash.

My empty stomach begins to rebel, cinching with nausea as I remember what Vision had suggested. That these bandages were made from the aliens' own skin.

The skin that is currently shriveling up and peeling off of me in shreds like my own does after a bad sunburn.

"UGH!" I gag and begin frantically brushing it off of me with my left hand, tufts of shriveled, delicate flakes drifting into the air as I scrub and scrape and swipe it off of me in a disgusted panic.

I snap to my feet, doing a grossed out, jiggling sort of dance on the branch as I shake off the rest of the bandages, shuddering and shivering as they flutter away.

"Gross, gross, SO gross!"

Once I am sure not even a scrap of it remains on my body, I look at my shoulder.

My suit is ripped where the hook had torn through me, revealing a small expanse of completely healed skin. A white, jagged scar is all that is left of the wound, the pain gone entirely.

"That...was disgusting," I grimace with a final shudder. At least it's healed, though I have another scar to explain to the guys in the locker room at P.E. now.

Glancing around, I roll my shoulders and try to pick a direction to go, hoping that I haven't been wandering in circles this entire time.

My spine goes rigid a brief second before I drop, flattening myself against the branch.

 _Thunk_.

My gaze shoots up to the pencil sized dart embedded in the trunk of the tree in front of me, shining black and with metallic fletching blinking with tiny blue lights.

"What the hell?" my lenses widen along with my eyes, and a thrill of my spine has me rolling off of the branch and dropping in a crouch to one fifteen feet below it.

 _Thunk thunk._

Two more are sticking out of the wood right where I'd been seconds before.

Ohhhhh crap.

I jerk my mask over my face and fling myself out of the tree, firing off a web to an even taller one in the distance as my ears pick up the faint whistling of wind as darts come flying towards me.

Halfway to the next tree, in mid swing, I shoot off a second web in an entirely different direction, kicking my legs out together to swing even faster, avoiding a fourth volley of darts.

 _Thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk._

"Holy crap!" I exclaim as I swing myself up and over a thick branch, landing on a wide bough beneath it and sprinting across the wood. "Where the hell are these all coming from?!"

I dive, kicking off of the branch, my body twisting into a front flip as I fall. The darts keep coming, faster and deadlier, giving me no time to look for who or what is firing them or how to stop it.

That's when I misjudge the strength of the branch I land on next.

SNAP!

"Whoa!" I cry as the wood splinters beneath my feet, and I am free falling towards the ground below, arms pinwheeling. Wildly, I shoot off a web, the end of it clinging to the middle of a nearby tree and sticking with a thwump. But it's too low, my swing too messy, and I end up slamming into the trunk, pain shooting through my left side at the jarring impact that has me letting go of the line.

I slam into the ground face first, a bush with leaves bigger than my torso softening the landing. Groaning, I stay there for a moment as my brain comes to term with the fact that I am no longer swinging through the trees.

 _Thunk thunk thunk thunk!  
_ "Come _on_!" I growl in frustration as I spin away, landing on the mossy earth in a low crouch. "Enough with the darts already!"

I surge to my feet, running as fast as I can in what I hope is the opposite direction of my attackers. Navigating the jungle floor is even more complicated than hopping from tree to tree like a spider monkey, even more so since I am barrelling through the foliage as fast as I can go.

I leap over a mess of roots, kicking off of the trunk of a tree to dive behind another, sliding down slopes and bounding over plant covered logs. My heart is racing, my breathing rapid and tight in my chest, my already tired muscles protesting as I skid down a slippery bank of plants and try to convince my body to run even faster.

 _Thunk thunk thunk!_

I jump, arms thrown back behind me, legs tucking up towards my chest as I throw myself over a steep embankment. Crashing through more foliage, I tuck and roll as I hit the ground, surging to my feet and running several yards before I whip around a tree and-

SLAM

I crash into something that goes down, taking me down with it as it lets out a hoarse cry.

Heart in my throat, I rear back, fist raised-

 _"Dr. Banner?!"_

I stare down at the scientist, his expression twisting into a pained, yet shocked grimace. Dr. Banner lets out a grunting wheeze that reminds me-hey, I'm still sitting on the man's chest.

"Oh! Sorry!" I clamber off of him, reaching down a hand to help him up.

He takes it, groaning and wincing as I pull him to his feet. "Geez, kid, where's the fire?"

 _Thunk_!

Still clasping his hand, I jerk him forward, spinning as I yank him away from the incoming dart. "Run!" I shout, turning and hightailing it through the trees.

Dr. Banner, to his credit, doesn't hesitate or ask stupid questions like why or what from. His face just morphs into panic as he takes off right beside me. The man is slower than me, by a lot, so I have to cut back my pace to remain beside him, staying near enough to jerk him out of harm's way if I have to.

"What the hell's happening?" he cries, throwing up his arms as we run to avoid getting slapped in the face by the multitude of bushes surrounding us.

"We're running-through the jungle-trying to avoid possibly- _whoa, watch it!-_ \- poisonous alien darts!"

"Thank you for that clarification!" Dr. Banner shoots back dryly. "I meant-"

I dive, tackling him from the side just as four darts whip above our heads. We go down in a tangle of limbs right over the edge of a cliff I hadn't even known was there.

Dr. Banner yells, arms flailing as we plummet to another layer of jungle below us.

"I got you!"

I fire off a web that attaches itself firmly to Dr. Banner's chest, and with a harsh yank, I pull him to my side midair, hooking my arm around his torso. At the same time, I shoot off another line with my left hand, watching as it sticks to the top of the canopy we are about to crash through. "Brace yourself!" I yell.

I let us keep falling, our bodies slamming through the thick leaves, snapping smaller, thinner branches that whack into us painfully in return. Then the line I am holding goes taut, and instead of falling, we are swinging up, up, up-

My feet hit and stick to the wide bough of a tree, and I keep my grip on Dr. Banner as he stumbles forward, nearly pitching head first off of the branch.

Tensing, I look around, ears and eyes and senses straining for any sign that we are still being pursued. An impossibly long moment stretches on as we breathe heavily and wait for the telltale whistle of wind and thunk of impact.

"I think...I think we lost them, or it, or whatever," I pant, letting go of Dr. Banner and allowing my muscles to relax.

The scientist looks nauseated, winded, and like his brain is still free falling, trying to catch up his body.

"Are you ok?"

He scrubs at his jaw, glancing down at the jungle floor very, very far below us, paling, then moves quickly to press his back against the trunk of the tree. "No. Not really, no."

"Yeah, me neither," I admit, removing my mask and taking in several deep breaths. "Man, am I glad to see you."

Dr. Banner looks at my face, the worried lines on his own softening. "Yeah, me too, kid. I take it you haven't seen anybody else?"

I shake my head. "But, that's ok, right? Like, us finding each other means that they have to be out there somewhere too."

"It's pretty safe to assume the aliens dropped us all over this jungle," Dr. Banner agrees. "Though I've been walking for hours, and you're the first person I've run into."

Literally.

"Do you think that was them? Back there I mean, with the darts?"

"I didn't see anything, but it stands to reason those darts came from our alien friends, or something worse," he grimaces. "What I can't figure out is why they took us from Earth, go through the effort of keeping us alive, only to drop us into the jungle and try to kill us."

That's when it hits me.

"Oh my god," I press the heels of my hands into my forehead, my eyes widening as I stare at him. "That's it!"

"What's it?" Dr. Banner eyes me warily.

"This is just like that movie Predators!"

He looks at me like maybe I hit my head too hard on the way down. "With Arnold Schwarzenegger?"

I frown, my eyebrows furrowing. "No, not the really old one. The newer one with the guy with the big nose and that Morpheus dude from those old Matrix movies."

Dr. Banner gapes at me for a moment, looking more and more confused. "Wait, what? There's a predator movie with Laurence Fishburne in it?"

"Yeah! These guys get snatched from Earth and then wake up parachuting into the jungle with all their weapons and they have to like, band together to figure out what's happening and then they realize they are on an alien planet and being hunted by the alien predators and they have to tear through the jungle avoiding all these traps while being chased by all the monsters."

I stare at him excitedly, waiting for him to get it.

He doesn't. "You lost me."

"We're being _hunted_ ," I explain, a chill shuddering through me at the word.

Dr. Banner pales. "Hunted?"

"Think about it. They nabbed us from Earth but not the rest of the Avengers, because-"

"Because we have abilities that they don't," his face immediately becomes grave with understanding. "We're stronger, more enhanced than regular people."

"And much more of a challenge," I add, my empty stomach squirming.

"That's why they healed you," Dr. Banner's eyes go to my shoulder, noticing the lack of bandages and the healed skin visible in the tear in my suit. "So you would be strong enough to present more of a threat. So they wouldn't just pick you off the moment you woke up in the jungle."

I wince at his words, but he's right. "And that's why they separated us all over the jungle, why they gave us a few hours head start before coming after us. To make it more interesting."

"God, this is messed up," Dr. Banner puts both hands on his forehead, leaning against the trunk of the tree and sliding down until he is seated. "Beyond messed up. This is...it's…"

"Yeah," I agree with a sigh, lowering myself to a crouch on the branch.

"I'm so tired of aliens," his hands move to cover his face, muffling his voice. "Why is it always aliens?"

I hesitate, then awkwardly reach over to pat his shoulder in a 'there, there' sort of manner. "I uh...had an alien parasite in my chest for awhile. It sucked. Aliens kind of suck. At least all the ones I've met."

Dr. Banner's hands drop to his lap. "An alien parasite...in your chest? That's...harsh."

"Yeah, no kidding. This isn't great either," I add, gesturing to the jungle around us. "So...what do you think we should do?"

The scientist frowns, brows knitting together as he thinks. "Try and find the others, I guess. Strength in numbers and all that."

"Great!" I say enthusiastically, standing up too fast and startling him. "They can't be too far. Hopefully. Oh, and I don't know about you, but I could really use some water about now. And food if there's anything edible on this planet."

"Agreed," Dr. Banner pushes himself to his feet, eyeing the ground again. "I uh-prefer to travel on the ground, where I can't fall a hundred feet to my death, if that's ok."

"Oh, right."

Slipping my mask over my face, I press the trigger of my web shooter, attaching the end of the web firmly to the trunk of the tree above Dr. Banner and move so that my feet are sticking to the very edge, the line growing taut in my hands. "Ready?"

Dr. Banner looks distinctly unhappy as he hooks an arm over my shoulder, my right arm grabbing him around his chest. "Don't drop me," he warns.

"I won't," I promise earnestly and push off the tree to rappel down its trunk.

Dr. Banner's other arm shoots up to wrap around my front, his body stiff as he curses under his breath.

Baby steps, I think, taking the descent slow and easy for his sake.

I am so beyond relieved to have found him, that I am no longer alone in this jungle, and that we have a plan to find the others.

As terrifying as it is that we've realized our purpose on this planet, and that we are currently being hunted by scary-ass aliens, I now have Dr. Banner with me.

And, even better, I have something scarier than any alien by my side.

I have the Hulk.

* * *

 **A/N: Ahhhh so the truth is finally out: The Avengers are being hunted.**

 **I so enjoyed reading everybody's guesses! A lot of you were leaning towards a Hunger Games scenario, which I could totally see. Has anyone seen the newest Predators movie with Adrien Brody? It's sick, and actually what gave me the idea for this fic. One of you guessed it!**

 **Many of you are big fans of the protective Bucky aspect of this fic, and trust me, I am a big fan of it as well. I love the character/relationship growth between him and Peter over the course of these fics, how they started off as complete strangers, then identified with the trauma they've been through, both becoming free of their demons, allowing Bucky to sort of rebecome who he was before he became the Winter Soldier...ahhhh I didn't plan this all out or see it coming when I first started writing it, but I am SO glad it has ended up this way. You guys are gonna love this fic.**

 **In other news, I had an epiphany/idea for the concluding story in this series and I am insanely excited about it, even though it is a long way off. So after Riders in the Sky, there's actually another, shorter fic called Hunted (possibly a working title) that is totally different from this one, but the next in the series. And after that may be the epic conclusion to this series (though I may do smaller fics or one shots to add to it later) called Sound of Silence. It's going to be eeeeeeeppppiiiiccccc. You guys will die. But! That is all slightly irrelevant since this story has a long ways to go before it is finished, and it is going to be one hell of a ride.**

 **STOP EVERYTHING YOU ARE DOING. THIS IS AN URGENT MESSAGE FROM YOUR QUEEN. If you haven't started PippinStrange's "Where They Go", you HAVE TO GO READ IT RIGHT NOW. She just posted chapter ten of it, and as her beta, I got the privilege of sneaking a peek at chapter eleven last night, and I DIED. I ACTUALLY DIED. FANGIRLED SO UNBELIEVABLY HARD. If you are a fan of my work, you seriously cannot miss her story, it feels just like canon and makes everything about Infinity War ok. Please, please, please go read it so that we can all geek out together. Tell her Queen sent you. ;)**

* * *

DarylDixon'sLover: Maaaaybe...;)

sparklydog9: good guess! it was close!

gandalf537: Yay! Seriously makes me so happy how much you are enjoying this.

Heroes21: Hope it was satisfactory! :)

Web-HeadSuperFan: Ahhhh thank you!

zoyzonda: Thank you very much! Back when I wrote Paint it Black, all the povs totally intimidated me, and even though this story has a couple I've never written from before, I feel a lot less intimidated by the process. It's a great practice as a writer and so fun getting into everyone's heads. :D

Seawell: Yes! Ah, you caught a major typo there! Definitely supposed to say never. Hopefully no major missing words in this chapter! lol

AppleSpongeCake: Errrr...sorry? Lol. Five days late on the update. :D

Guest: Ah thank you! I definitely wanted to make this one about the team as a whole, almost like an Infinity War style of bringing lots of heroes together (although not everyone, I am not prepared for that business yet. lol) but still have Peter be a central character. :)

Shoyzz: Lol! Your commentary is always so great! I answered a couple questions for ya there! But many still remain...glad you're enjoying! ;)

StarStepper: Thanks so much! Wanda is so one of my favorites to write for, and to think, I had no idea before this fic! Glad you have a love/hate relationship with the teasers! lol!

LoonyLovegood1981: OMG Wow! Thank you! I definitely feel like my writing/plot has improved since I first started in this verse, so I am so glad you think so too!

ItsAnnieMikaelson: YOU GOT IT! :D

Ginaboo: Thank you so so so much! I love writing in all the povs, and I seriously geek out when you guys say I do it well. Makes me so happy to hear!

icotnoir: Ahhhh thank you so much! And welcome aboard! I love getting new readers and they get to binge everything while the others have had to wait. lol!

Vivienne: Omg thank you! Infinity War ripped me apart too. Like, i have a lot of theories that comfort me, none nearly as comforting as Where They Go by PippinStrange, but I also felt like I needed to write something to make myself feel better. :)

Endoftheline: LOL! I was wondering if anyone from Ao3 would hop over to read ahead! I know I would, I have no patience. lol. Welcome aboard! Thank you so so much for your review! I also love the protective atmosphere, I live for that kind of stuff, and there will be plenty of that in this fic. :) And yes! Protective Bucky! I adore him.

Andy Frost: Lol yes! Jumanji! XD I can't answer the thanos/asgardian ship question, as it is part of the plot and a huge spoiler, but I can tell you that I came up with the alien race on my own, and I'm glad you think they sound menacing! I will try to keep doing updates at least once a week if I can. :)

JeyFeather1234: Ahhhh yes, plot definitely thickening! XD Close with the hunger games!

MsSoraya: WOW. JUST WOW. Thank you so so so much! It's always my favorite compliment when someone remarks upon the canon/accuracy of the characters, or how they see it just like a Marvel movie. Makes me SO happy because that is exactly what I am going for. So thank you! So glad you are enjoying, and I hope you continue to do so! :D :D :D

cargumentluv: Thank you! :)

Luckias: Thanks so much!

* * *

 **You guys are the best. Love the crap out of my review squad. You so make my day. Special thanks as always to the best beta ever, and also the greatest writer I know, PippinStrange!**

 **COMING UP:**

 **Chapter Six: God's Gonna Cut You Down**

 **Tension grows, the stakes escalate, and the Avengers trapped on the alien planet experience first hand what it's like to truly be hunted.**


	6. God's Gonna Cut You Down

**Chapter Six: God's Gonna Cut You Down**

* * *

 **...**

 **...**

 **Steve Rogers**

Any comfort I find in the familiarity of the jungle around me disappears the moment the sun goes down and night falls.

What little light the stars might offer are blocked off by the jungle's canopy, making it nearly pitch black on the jungle floor. Or, it would be, were it not for the disturbing lights.

Just like in the cells of the ship, where the stone walls revealed pulsing red light beneath its cracks, the plant life around me are all lined with thin, glowing, crimson threads. It's like their veins are visible, their leafy skin becoming more translucent without the light or heat from the sun bearing down on them, and all around me is a dim, faint network of scarlet illumination, the only thing visible in the darkness.

It's disturbing, eerie, something out of those sci fi movies Sam likes to make me watch.

As unearthly as the landscape around me is, the dull red lights lining the plants allow me to keep moving even when darkness falls, picking my way over the thick entanglement and being careful not to slip down into the stream I am following.

I hope the steady rush of water and the noise of the nocturnal creatures beginning to stir are enough to camouflage my movements.

I've been trekking through the jungle all day without a single sign of the others. There had been a narrow encounter with a snare I had unknowingly tripped, a great, spike filled hole opening up before my feet, but that was the only trace of my alien captors.

My empty stomach clenches, the strain of my worry growing with every passing hour. Where the hell are they?

As much as I wish he was by my side, I know Bucky can take care of himself. Wanda and Vision are both powerhouses, and though untrained for situations like this (although honestly, how do you prepare anyone for something like this), I believe they can hold their own. I have to believe they can hold their own.

Bruce is definitely high on the concern list. I wince as I push back several swinging vines, imagining the scientist on his own out here. Hulk is his only weapon, but it is also a dead giveaway to his position, so I hope he only uses it as a last resort. Still, that left him too vulnerable alone.

Then there's the kid, highly inexperienced, untrained, but strong as hell and filled with youthful determination. My jaw tightens. Stark will blame me if something happens to him out here. Hell, I will blame me.

I have to trust in my team. As sickeningly worried as I am, I have to put my faith in their skills and instincts.

But images of the battle in Manhattan flood my brain, stained by the persistent red lights around me. The highly trained and technologically advanced alien force had been toying with us, and I believe could have wiped us out.

And that had been on our turf, fighting together.

What chance did we stand on our own?

SNAP.

Without hesitating, I tuck and roll, rising up in a fluid motion to press my back against the tree.

The sound had been close, loud.

Intentional.

Slowly, I reach for the shield at my back and secure it to the magnetic brace across my forearm. I press further back against the wide divot in the trunk, the crevice in the bark nearly swallowing me up as my eyes scan the darkness for any break in the dim red lights.

With the exception of the slow running water somewhere to my right, the jungle has become heavy with silence, anticipation hanging as thick in the air as the humidity.

I keep my arm twisted so that the front of my shield is lowered, facing the tree. I don't want the red lights to gleam off of its metal surface and give away my position. But I am inclined to believe whoever or whatever made that noise already knows where I am.

The snapping of the branch had been intentional, but the purpose not clear. To make me freeze in place? To send me running? Flush me out? To have me focus on the sound behind me as the danger comes from the front?

Movement.

My eyes zero in on the lack of light in the distance, left of my position. All around it the thin red lights spread out and pulse and sway in the faintest of breezes, but there, just there…

I raise my shield, a sudden, jarring impact singing through the bones of my arm as something slams into it and ricochets into the air. Lowering it enough to see the end of a wicked looking spear embedding itself into the earth with a soft thump, I raise my eyes to see the shadow charging towards me.

I meet it head on, taking three running steps before sliding to my knees, a whisper of wind ruffling my hair as I avoid the knife that would have sunk straight into my stomach. My arm thrusts up, shield slamming into the hand wielding the knife, hoping to disarm.

There's a sound like splintering glass, a sharp, echoing crack followed by an amphibious scream. That's when I realize the hand wasn't holding the knife.

The knife had been part of the alien's wrist.

A fierce backhand sends me flying, and I land with a grunt of pain on an entanglement of roots, each the size of my arm. I roll as a second knife slams down, stabbing deep into a root right where my head had been.

I kick out at the back of the alien's knee, its legs buckling at the impact, and then I'm on my feet, slamming my fist into its masked face before backhanding it with my shield. The alien stumbles back, the knife from its wrist ripping free of its sheath in the tree roots.

We begin to circle, my feet crossing over each other across the damp earth as I stare at the monstrous shadow before me, most of its features completely hidden in the darkness. The dim red lights around us cast the faintest of glints across its armored body, and a pair of crimson irises glare out at me.

"I'm sorry," I say, readying my shield and tensing my muscles. "Did that hurt?"

It charges, drawing a second spear from its back, twirling it as it comes. I fall into a series of dodges, stepping back, twisting to the side to avoid a sharp jab of the spear, bending almost completely backwards as it thrusts for my neck. The moves are fast, fluid, but brash with anger.

I'd pissed it off.

Good.

I parry another blow with my shield, reaching with my free hand to grab the spear as it drives towards me. Yanking it hard and forcing the alien to stumble forward, I rear back and slam my forehead into its own.

The alien loses its grip on the spear, and even though my head is throbbing with pain from the blow, I toss the spear into the air, flipping it so that the bladed end is aiming towards the alien.

Then I drive it straight through the alien's chest.

The black metal crumples beneath the spear's end, and with a loud, sickening crunch, it sinks through its torso.

Red eyes widen, a clicking, gurgling sound emerging from beneath the mask covering its face. My mouth is set in a grim line, my muscles still tense, ready for it to retaliate even though this should be a killing blow.

You never can tell with aliens.

But the body goes limp until the spear is all that is holding it upright, and as I release the weapon, the alien falls back onto the ground with a dull thud. Breathing heavily, I stare down at the shadowy body, aware of the sweat trickling down my forehead.

Something sharp presses against the side of my neck, and I freeze, my body tensing as I hold perfectly still. Slowly, my eyes drag to my left, along the end of the spear poised to jab straight through me, to the second alien I hadn't heard coming.

It's red and black eyes aren't furious at the death of its comrade. Instead, I see a savage sort of victory gleaming there.

I'll have to be fast. Throw myself back as I raise my shield to block the blow. If I'm even a second too slow, that spear will slice open my neck in a flash.

The jagged end of its blade begins to emit a red glow, waves of energy pulsing off of it. Still frozen, I raise my eyes to see the alien's gaze widen as it looks down at the spear it's holding against my throat.

That's when I realize that the crimson light isn't coming from the weapon.

The spear jerks up and away, twisting mid air and thrusting forward to drive itself into the alien's shoulder, the blow so powerful, it sends the creature flying back so that the tip of the spear embeds itself into the tree behind it.

I look behind me at the third pair of glowing red eyes I have seen tonight, but these eyes are brighter, familiar.

Wanda's power radiates around her, casting her face in fierce shadows as she stalks out of the darkness, Vision at her side.

"You're late," I say.

"You're welcome," she replies, and we both exchange grim smiles.

The alien pinned to the tree is snarling as it reaches up to grip the spear by its handle, and with a sharp yank, pulls it from its shoulder. It rears back its arm, mindless of its gaping wound as it hurls the spear towards Wanda.

Her hands jerk up, fingers twisting as her body leans to the side, her power wrapping around the spear and shoving it past her into the trees.

I'm charging forward, shield raised as the alien lunges for me, but Vision phases through the tree behind it, gripping its wounded shoulder and squeezing hard. It shrieks in pain as I reach it, leaping into the air and slamming my shield into the side of its head.

It goes down hard.

Before it can rise, Vision reaches down, phasing his arms straight through the alien's as he pulls the thick, wide roots of the tree up through the ground. When the android steps back, I see that he had phased the roots through the alien's arms, then let go so that the wounded creature is now completely impaled and trapped beneath it.

Wanda steps to our side as we look down at it, the alien thrashing and hissing in pain and anger.

Her eyes grow lethally scarlet as she raises a twisting hand wrapped in light.

"Wait," I put a hand to her wrist. Then I look down at the alien's dim eyes. "Can you read it?"

Wanda's gaze narrows. "I don't know if I want to," she answers, her accented voice laced with disgust.

"It could be our only opportunity for answers," Vision reminds her, softly gripping her shoulder.

She heaves a breath through her nose, looking distinctly unhappy. But Wanda moves forward to kneel beside the struggling alien. Loose strands of hair have slipped from her ponytail, and she brushes them aside as she watches it carefully.

Vision and I both move closer, bodies tense and ready should the alien break free.

Wanda's eyes are now glowing so bright, I can see the entirety of the alien's mask, the texture of its mottled, rock like skin visible above it. Her right hand raises towards its face, fingers curling delicately as she lowers it until her middle finger is only centimeters above its forehead. Her power curls around her, illuminating the alien and the roots beneath it as the red energy moves from her hand to its face.

The result is instant.

Wanda makes a low sound in her throat, her eyes squeezing shut as her entire body goes rigid. Vision and I move forward as one, but Wanda raises her free hand to stop us. It's trembling.

" _Gah_ ," she breathes, tucking in her chin as her face screws up in pain. Beneath her touch, the alien is frozen, back arched as it stares up with wide eyes.

Crimson power pulses erratically beneath her hand, a stream of it connecting to the aliens face, and her free hand moves to grip the side of her head as she shudders, breathing heavily.

Wanda jerks away so fast, she falls to the ground, her bright power winking out and casting the jungle back into its dim darkness. As my eyes adjust, I see Vision at her side, helping her sit up as she pants, eyes round and horrified.

"What is it?" Vision asks in a low voice, his strange face filled with concern.

Wanda can't look away from the alien, who is shaking and glaring at her with unbridled rage and hatred.

"What did you see?" I ask, dread curling in my gut.

"Monsters," she answers in a trembling voice. "They're _monsters_."

I glance around me at the dark jungle, still heavy with silence. "We need to move," I say reluctantly. Wanda is clearly distraught, but we've made too much noise, garnered too much attention. And if there are any more aliens in the immediate area, they will be heading straight for us.

Vision helps her to her feet and meets my eyes. "Where to, Captain?"

"Follow the water upstream. We need to get to high ground," I order, moving my gaze meaningfully to the alien still pinned to the ground. "I'll be right behind you."

Vision nods, leading a shaking Wanda away into the jungle. Something gleams near my feet, and I pick up the broken shard of knife I had snapped from the first alien's wrist. It feels heavier than it should, my lips thinning to a tight line as I crouch over the creature.

Its muscled chest heaves, dark blood dripping steadily from the wound in its shoulders, its arms, pooling like a shadow beneath it. Black and red eyes glare up at me, burning with their intensity. I can't see the rest of its face beneath the armored mask it wears, but I'd swear that it is smiling at me, baring its teeth, if it has any.

 _You're going to die,_ those eyes seem to promise. _You're all going to die._

"Not today."

A flash of the knife, and the silence is broken by its last, shuddering gasp of pain that trails off into a throaty rattle.

Steeling myself, I clean off the knife and tuck it into my belt, casting one last glance at the carnage we are leaving in our wake before I turn and follow Wanda and Vision into the darkness.

* * *

 **Peter Parker **

"You eat it."

I give Dr. Banner a sharp look as he stares skeptically at the fruit in my hand. "What? Why don't _you_ eat it first?"

"I'm older than you, which means I'm pulling rank, here, kid. Plus, your idea."

Fair point.

Damn it.

Although right now, I'm hungry enough that I almost don't care about the risk. Almost. Sighing, I tentatively raise the mottled purple fruit to my lips. I stop.

"Wait." I reach down and activate Droney, and with a quiet whir, it hovers in front of me. "Droney, can you scan this? See if it's ok to eat?"

The spider shaped drone obliges, a tiny red light emitting from its sensors to scan over the fruit in my hand. It beeps softly before it settles back into my chest with a click.

I watch as the screens on my lenses fill with information that I quickly skim over to the bottom, where the statistics are highlighted in green. "Yes! It's safe."

I shove the fruit into my mouth, a small drop of juice spraying onto the mask I have raised above my nose as I bite down. The taste is sour, but the texture is good, and at this point, I honestly couldn't care less what it tastes like.

Dr. Banner reaches for one as I grab for a second, the red lights lining the stem flickering out as I pluck the fruit off of it. It's so dark we can barely see, but my lenses are equipped with both night vision and thermal, so it was relatively easy to find the fruit tree after hours of searching for dinner.

"So...Tony make you that suit?" Dr. Banner asks, slowly taking a bite.

I nod as I grab for a third piece. God, I'm starving.

"Slow down, Pete. You're going to make yourself sick."

"Sorry," I say, swallowing. "Increased metabolism. That, and uh, you know, I'm a teenager."

He winces at that. "Yeah, Steve told me. How'd you get mixed up in all of this anyways?"

Dr. Banner looks about as comfortable in this tree as I do when talking in front of class, but he settles back against the trunk as he chews his fruit, his eyes watching me. I reach up and snag a fourth piece, but start to eat this one slower to appease him.

"Radioactive spider."

"No kidding?" he raises an eyebrow. "Wow. Radiation was certainly kinder to you than it was to me."

I snort. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Guess so? You're lucky it didn't give you the ability to turn into a giant, rage filled spider whenever your hormones got the best of you. Although Hulk probably would have enjoyed the challenge."

I shudder at the image that brought up, but grin at him as I take another bite. "Yeah, yeah, ok. I am lucky."

"Well, not too lucky. We _are_ stranded on an alien planet being hunted like animals," Dr. Banner points out.

The fruit turns bitter on my tongue and becomes hard to swallow.

"First time on an alien planet?" he asks sympathetically, taking another bite as I nod. "Trust me, kid, I get it. I haven't been on Earth in over two years, and when I figured that little tidbit out, it was hard to not just lose it and freak out."

I peer at him. "How come you're not freaking out right now?"

"I sort of have to keep a lid on it, or our whole 'stealth mode' plan, as you put it, is toast. The big guy would call every alien in a hundred miles right on top of us," Dr. Banner winces, tossing the pit of his fruit to the jungle floor below.

Oh crap. I hadn't realized there were pits.

"Plus, sadly, I think I'm adjusting to being kidnapped or trapped or hijacked to other planets."

"Isn't adjusting a good thing?"

"Not when it's to shit this crazy. Adjusting means you're starting to become a little crazy yourself," Dr. Banner shifts against the tree, trying to find a comfortable spot. "Although, I have to say, this scenario is certainly a lot worse than the other ones I've been caught up in lately."

"Where exactly have you been all this time?" I ask curiously.

"Sakaar, mostly. Hulk was sort of a gladiator for awhile."

"A _gladiator_?!"

"Keep your voice down, kid. We're being hunted, remember?"

"Sorry."

"And yeah, a gladiator. Champion, technically, until Thor came along. It's a long story," Dr. Banner sighs as he leans his head back, closing his eyes.

It sounds like a long story I _definitely_ want to hear every single detail about, but he's clearly done talking about it. Still, would have been a nice distraction from the panic that wanted to rise up every time I think too hard about the dark and freaky eeriness of the alien jungle, about the idea that those huge, badass aliens are trying to hunt us down and probably take our heads as trophies to mount on their weird, claustrophobic alien spacecraft without even having the courtesy of bringing my body back to Earth for May and Mr. Stark to bury, although thinking of them having to deal with my headless corpse with only my tattered suit to identify me is-

"I told you not to eat the fruit so fast, Peter," Dr. Banner's voice breaks me from my spiralling descent. "You look like you're gonna hurl."

I blow out a long, purposeful breath. "Yeah...I think I swallowed some of the pits in that fruit."

Dr. Banner snorts, shaking his head. "You _are_ a teenager, aren't you?"

I pull my mask the rest of the way over my face, straightening from my spot on the branch. "I'm gonna climb higher, see if I can see out of the canopy a bit."

"It's pitch black out there. What do you expect to see?"

"Dunno. Doesn't hurt to check though. Don't go anywhere."

Dr. Banner scoffs at the order. "Couldn't if I wanted to."

I begin scaling the trunk of the tree, my hands and feet sticking effortlessly to the bark as I climb higher and higher, maneuvering around the fruit laden branches jutting out from the tree. I don't bother with night vision yet, using the thin red lights lining the bark as a guide.

The branches get thinner, more crowded, pressing in around me, sharp twigs jabbing into my arms and sides as I climb.

But then my head is poking out of the thick layer of trees, and I am looking over a massive valley of jungle.

"Oh man," I breathe, lenses widening as I take in the vast ocean of black stretching towards every horizon, a dim, scarlet glow emitting from the breaks in the trees. "We are in so much trouble."

The night sky is drenched in unfamiliar stars that cast their light upon the valley, outlining the trees that rise and fall in a sloping terrain. To my right, I see a tall mountain range, blanketed in jungle like the rest of the valley around it.

Heart sinking, stomach twisting with tense nerves, I grip the branches and prepare to lower myself back down when I catch a flare of red light in my peripheral vision. My gaze jerks in that direction, lenses narrowing, but I see nothing.

With bated breath, I wait, eyes narrowed on the spot I swore I had seen-

There!

Crimson illuminates the trees far off in the distance, brief flashes before it gutters out completely. My heart is thudding in my chest. Ok, red flashing light. Could be some alien plant spazzing out. Could be the aliens who brought us here. Their ships and weapons had red light too.

But it could be a trap that was triggered...which means it could be one of the other Avengers over there. Or maybe they were locked in battle with the aliens. Or maybe...maybe it's Scarlet Witch, using her powers, which are also red.

Whatever it is, we have to check it out, because my gut is telling me that it could be our friends.

Scrambling back down, I land on the wide branch I had vacated with a thud that shakes the leaves and fruit hanging from the limb. " _Dr. Banner-!"_

I freeze. "Dr. Banner?"

There's no one there.

I quickly scan the other wide branches, thinking maybe I had landed on the wrong one, but the tree is empty. And the scientist is nowhere in sight.

Chills shudder down my body as my gut twists with panic. Where is he? Where did he go? What happened to him?

He wouldn't have tried climbing up after me or climbing down on his own. The man was way too freaked out by the heights and his painfully obvious lack of skill in the climbing department.

Which means…

Which means he either fell, which I would have heard...or something took him.

* * *

 **A/N: Have I mentioned before that I am a cliffhanger type writer? Yeah, you guys have been through my stories before. You know. Lol. This one is definitely not going to be any different. Sorry! :D**

 **So before I go any further, I have to stop and take a moment to freak out about Where They Go by PippinStrange. Are you guys all caught up on that? Did you SEE the Paint it Black reference? I am STILL freaking the fangirl out! OMG it was amazing and chilling and beyond incredible. If you guys haven't read that fic, get on it, because it is fabulous and she is the best writer on this site. She's also your beta for this and all my MCU fics, so you have her to thank, because without her, none of this would exist. Just saying.**

 **Looooots of questions that still need to be answered, lots of peril ahead, lots of cliffhangers and deepening plots and intermittent humor and cliffhangers, have I mentioned cliffhangers? I'll try to be a bit more speedy on the updates, guys. I am trying to stay a couple chapters ahead while writing and posting since I am not working off of an outline or summary, just the generic ideas floating around in my messed up head. Lol.**

 **Without further ado, a few words for my bomb review squad...**

* * *

sparklydog7: Um...yes. :D lol. Should be quite the ride!

DarylDixon'sLover: No promises. :D

gandalf537: omg thank you! YOU are amazing

Web-HeadSuperFan: Thank YOU!

syed: I could totally see that as well! Should be quite epic ;)

cargumentluv: thank you!

EmilyF.6: Thanks so much! I love writing action scenes!

RimK10: :)

Seawell: Yes, thank goodness for Jesus! lol! Yay! I love keeping people on the edge of their seat! I am cruel like that. lol

LoonyLovegood1981: Squee! Thank you so much! I am so excited for it as well. Great song, and perfect title for the fic. I may have even started writing a few scenes for it...

AppleSpongeCake: DUDE. Major points for the most creative threat I have ever received. Like kudos. Also, I am terrified, and does this count as a late update and dear lord leave my spleen be. Please. LOL

bgib99: Wow bless you for binging my little series! Welcome aboard! :D

PippinStrange: I ADORE it when you list your favorite parts of the chapter. And the Captain Marvel comment SLAYED me

Jeyfeather1234: LOL I cracked myself up with Okoye's final comment too. XD glad you enjoyed it! and thank you for all your comments! wow! So excited to hear you were inspired enough to write your own as well!

Shoyzz: Your reviews are always a delight to read. XD I can feel your excitement and it's just thrilling for me as an author to read! Thank you!

Celeste621: Eeeee thank you! I love writing for Wanda, and I am glad to hear you are enjoying this installment so much!I liked the newer Predators as well and thought it would be such a fun concept to apply to the Avengers. As to your other question...no comment. ;)

StarStepper: Yay! Glad you are excited!

Guest: Ahhh thank you! I loved her part in Infinity War as well. With Silent Night, I knew having her would mess with the plot I had in mind, but i was also intimidated to write for her. Now? I cannot get enough and I can't wait to take her character all sorts of places before the end of this series.

MsSoraya: Thanks! lol! I so appreciate every review someone leaves, so I like taking the time to reply and thank them here. :) Reviews always make my day! I also adore Okoye and can't wait to write more of her! Thanks for reading and reviewing and enjoying!

SummerMistedDragon: :D

ItsAnnieMikaelson: ¡Ah, muchas gracias! No hablo español, así que si lo arruino, ¡culpa al traductor de Google! jaja! Gracias por su comentario y espero que sigan disfrutando ! ¡Mucha tensión y cliffhangers seguro!

GinaBoo: Thanks! I definitely knew I wanted to pair those two up, because I really would have died seeing their interaction in Infinity War. So excited to flesh out all these relationships and characters within this high stakes plot!

icotnoir: Thanks! It definitely could happen before the fic is over ;)

Kairianna864: Ahhh thank you for binging this series and welcome aboard! Thank you SO much! I try very hard to keep characters in character, so it makes me so happy to hear that.

ParadoxicOrder8: Lol nope! and uhhhhhhhh...um...I wouldn't hold out much hope for Peter's luck. ;)

* * *

 **I adore you guys so much. Thank you for sticking with me through this series, for those recently joining, and for all your support and encouragement!**

 **COMING UP:**

 **Chapter Seven: Guess Things Happen That Way**

 **Natasha and Okoye have an enlightening conversation, Wanda reveals just exactly what she saw in the alien's mind, and Peter and Bruce find themselves in over their heads.**


	7. Guess Things Happen That Way

**Chapter Seven: Guess Things Happen That Way**

* * *

 **...**

 **...**

 **Peter Parker**

"Dr. Banner!" I hiss in as loud a whisper as I dare.

Shit. _Shit_ , where the hell is he? Oh man, my first (and hopefully last) off-world situation with the Avengers, and I lose the Hulk. Who loses the Hulk?!

I slide the small toggle on my right lense that switches it to night vision. Everything becomes illuminated in grainy greens, but at least I can see a heck of a lot better.

I drop from the tree, landing in a crouch on the jungle floor. My senses are all on high alert, straining for any sign of the missing scientist or a possible threat.

Outside, I'm the epitome of epic superhero, ready to hunt down his missing partner.

Inside, I am freaking the hell out.

My eyes peer around me in all directions, and then I catch sight of the broken branches littering the ground, indentations all around it in the damp earth, all the foliage disrupted and smushed like something had been dragged across it.

 _Dr. Banner._

I make to follow the path when I hear a slight rustling so faint, I almost miss it.

Freezing in place, my eyes lock onto the thick foliage in front of me.

But that's not foliage. That's an armored back, a series of menacing spikes protruding down a curving spine. My eyes follow it down to its long arms, and gripped in its hands...an unconscious Dr. Banner, curled up and trapped inside a thinly woven net.

Ohhhhh crap. Here goes nothing.

"Hey, ugly!" I call, shifting into a defensive position as the alien turns, looking over its shoulder at me. "That's mine."

I aim a web at the net in its hands, my fingers barely a centimeter from the trigger in my palm, but the alien is just staring at me, waiting.

I probably should have expected the attack that came from my right.

* * *

 **Natasha Romanov**

In the time it took us to gather reinforcements and figure out what the hell was going on, the aliens had gotten a massive head start. Extra worrying, since it seemed their home planet, or at least the planet they are taking their captives to, is located in the far reaches of the universe.

Completely geared up in the high tech combat leathers T'Challa had provided for me, I stride to the front of the craft where Okoye is manning the controls. The others are all meandering the hull, either gearing up themselves, discussing plans, or getting familiar with their new weapons.

"It suits you," Okoye comments without looking at me.

I lean against the controls to her right, careful not to nudge any of the delicate looking equipment or levers behind me.

I glance down at the assortment of army green and black leathers armoring my body, straps and buckles securing the suit, weapons hidden within the built in slots. The armor is thicker than the uniforms I am used to, but I find it supple enough to move freely in.

"Thanks."

I take a moment to examine all the tells in her face, in her body language. Her grip on the control wheel is tight, but not white-knuckled tight, and she holds herself straight, more stiff than is comfortable. Okoye's gaze is even on the view in front of her, and some might even call it expressionless, but I know better. The corners of her mouth are pressed down ever so slightly, and the rigidity of her jaw tells of clenched teeth.

"Are you done examining me?"

"Sorry. Course of habit."

"Is there something you wished to ask or did you come up here for the view?" Okoye asks, arching an eyebrow.

I glance back at the multitude of lights streaming past us in a multicolored rush of electricity, something I'd only ever glimpsed in sci-fi movies, though they couldn't possibly do it justice. Traveling at this velocity and speed is the only way we will reach the alien planet in a reasonable amount of time.

Reasonable, considering that if we flew in real time, our children's great grandchildren would be old by the time we got there.

"What's your stake in this?" I ask her.

The woman gives me a derisive look. "I am here to protect my king and avenge my people."

There. The crease between her brows deepened when she said "avenge".

"It's more than that for you," I murmur, frowning.

Okoye's eyes are sharp on me. "It is. Not that it is any of your business."

"I don't mean to pry. Just trying to understand."

The warrior heaves a silent breath. "My mother's elder sister was a member of the Dora Milaje. She was one of the ones taken fifty years ago."

My lips press together in a grim line. "I'm sorry."

"I never met her," Okoye continues in her rich accent, her eyes lost in memory. "But my mother told me so many stories of the fierce warrior my aunt was, how she led the Dora Milaje without fear, how she was the first to strike back when those foreign monsters attacked. She is one of the reasons I worked my entire life to become a part of the order."

"She sounds like an incredible woman."

"She was," Okoye gives me an even look. "I have a chance to enact justice for her life, the lives of all the warriors we lost that day, and I will take it."

I nod in understanding. Revenge is a concept I am intimately familiar with, and the ferocity I see burning in her eyes will serve her well on the battlefield.

"Can you tell me anything more about the aliens that attacked?" I ask after a moment.

Okoye eyes me. "You were the one who fought them face to face. All I have are accounts from history. What can _you_ tell _me_?"

I give her a small, approving smile before I focus on everything I learned and observed. "I assume you saw footage of the attack."

She nods.

"Then you saw how well trained they are. It was as if they'd been born to fight, and yet they were holding back on us until the end, until they took the others."

"I've been wondering why they did not just kill you if you were not the ones they were after."

"I don't think we were deemed important enough to kill," I reply with a frown, remembering how the one I'd fought had acted as though I was a fly that landed on its shoulder. Not even worth squashing. "Were any of the Dora Milaje enhanced?"

Okoye's brows furrow. "Not to my knowledge, no. Why?"

"They were only interested in the big players, those with abilities. Why take the Wakandans fifty years ago if they didn't have superhuman abilities?"

I'd thought about this a great deal. Thought of all the reasons the aliens would have to take that select few; experimentation, extraction of enhanced abilities, scientific study and dissection, slavery, mind control, some kind of sadistic, underground alien fighting ring.

I'd also chosen to tell none of these to Stark.

"I believe Wakanda's advanced technology and vibranium weaponry is what drew those creatures to us," Okoye says finally. "That was during a time before the Avengers, before inhumans and enhanced individuals became public. Our defenses should have ensured Wakanda was invisible not only to the rest of Earth, but to other worlds as well. But they failed."

It makes sense. In a world not brimming with super powered individuals, at least not public ones, the aliens would have set their sights on the one spot on Earth they might find something different, something...more. Wakanda's warriors are formidable, as is their technology. Perhaps the only reason they were not targeted a second time had been the creation of the Avengers.

I've been prioritizing, delegating in my head, putting away the inessential worries and gut wrenching fear to focus only on my actions, my planning, preparing for this fight.

But that doesn't mean the thoughts don't slip through.

Vision and Wanda, just coming back from their hiatus traveling the world.

The kid, who'd been through more ordeals than anyone should have to face at his age.

Bucky, whose silent, brooding presence had become somewhat of a constant, our relationship growing closer and steadier within the past couple months, even going so far as to train together or mock Steve when he's being...well, Steve.

The last image I have of Steve Rogers is two of those aliens bearing down on him, the Captain fighting them off valiantly until a violent blow from a spear had sent him crashing lifelessly onto the ground.

And Bruce...

After over two years of searching, wondering, Bruce Banner had fallen from the sky like a goddamn star out of heaven, and a week later, he'd been snatched right back as if he had never returned. A week, where he'd spent most of his time debriefing and trying to jog his memory. A week, where we'd had exactly three conversations.

I open my eyes to find Okoye staring at me intently.

"Are you done examining me?" I ask with a smirk.

Okoye gives me a knowing look. "It seems I am not the only one with a high stake in this mission."

* * *

 **Wanda Maximoff**

Pain.

My head is throbbing with it, shards of glass slowly sinking deeper into my brain. The damp heat of the jungle makes me feel feverish, covered in sweat.

Vision keeps me steady, one of my arms thrown over his shoulder, his right arm encircling my waist. I insist that I remain walking. I am not gone enough to warrant him carrying me like a damsel through the jungle. But I know without his help, I would be a crumpled heap beneath one of the large trees in this godforsaken jungle.

"Just a little farther," he urges quietly.

I don't answer him. I can't. Not when I am using every available bit of energy to keep myself from passing out.

Reading the alien…

No. Don't think about it. Not yet.

Focus on putting one foot in front of the other. Do not become a burden. Do not become the weak link that gets them killed.

The jungle becomes a blur of red streaked shadow, wavering at the edges, beckoning me to oblivion. It's Steve Roger's voice that jerks me back. Even though he speaks softly, the sound is like needles to my ear drums.

I should not have read that alien.

"No signs of pursuit," he murmurs. "I scouted ahead. There's a cave not too far from here that juts out from the stream. We can rest there."

Rest. My knees nearly buckle at the word.

Reality comes and goes in feverish waves, with every throb of my headache. One minute I am stumbling through the jungle in Vision's arms, the next, I am locked within the alien's mind, image after image flooding through me in a horrific replay that makes no sense at all.

I think it's raining.

No.

No, those are tears streaming down my cheeks.

 _Pull yourself together, Wanda,_ I hear Pietro's voice murmur from my right, a smile in his voice. _You are an Avenger now. Don't be such a girl about it._

 _"_ I'm not being a girl about it," I mutter back, stumbling over a large root. I don't fall, not with Vision's arm secured around me, but I feel the weight of his concerned stare, of Steve's.

I'm being settled down against something hard and damp, darkness all around me. I sigh as I lean heavily back, savoring the lack of red light, of the coolness inside the cave, the smell of rock and water and salt…

Something damp and cold is pressing against my forehead, and I let out a relieved sigh.

"Is that better?" murmurs Vision.

"Yes," I breathe.

His touch grounds me, brings me back to my trembling body huddled in the mouth of a narrow cave, scarcely big enough to house all three of us within it.

"Are they coming?" I ask, feeling Vision's body beside me and leaning into him.

"No one followed us," Steve replies firmly. "We should be safe for the night."

With every passing second, I begin to feel more and more coherent. The headache lingers, sharp and throbbing in my skull, but the feverish feeling begins to dissipate as focusing on the present moment becomes easier and easier.

"Are you alright?' Steve asks, worry thick in his voice, in the lines of his face.

"I think so," I wince at a particularly sharp stab of pain at the center of my forehead.

"Reading doesn't usually take this much out of you," frowns Steve, his blue eyes barely visible in the darkness.

"I don't usually read homicidal aliens," I murmur dryly.

"What did you see?" asks Vision, who keeps his voice soft for my sake. "What did you feel?"

My chest constricts, squeezing my lungs. "Death," I whisper, closing my eyes against the onslaught of images.

So much death.

Reading it had been like delving into a raging river, currents tossing me this way and that, wrenching me deeper into its mind even when I wanted to pull back. Images had thrust themselves at me, overlapping and vibrant in their horror. And I could feel the very essence of the alien...the need for victory, the overwhelming bloodlust, murder and mayhem and apoplectic rage…

I feel tainted by it, even now. Like traces of it linger on my skin, in every throbbing stab in my head. It makes me shudder, makes me want to scrub my body raw.

Not just the images, the emotions, but the moments where I swear it was my hands gripping the spear, driving it into my prey's gut, savoring the spill of their blood, the pained horror in their faces as I watch them die, another trophy for me to claim, to lord over my brothers who had failed to kill such a creature-

 _Stop. Not me. Not mine._

The heels of my hands are pressing into my eyes, my breathing ragged. The others are waiting for answers, and I can feel their concern like a weight upon my back.

"They've been doing this for centuries," I begin, my voice strangled as nausea surges in my stomach. "Going planet to planet. Striking so that the fiercest warriors are drawn out. Then they take them, bring them here, and hunt them."

"Hunt?" Steve's voice is sharp.

I nod, cringing at the pain. "So many," I whisper. "They've slaughtered so many."

"What is the purpose?" Vision asks evenly. "Why hunt the warriors they take? Why not just kill them?"

"They don't care about conquest or the domination of worlds. Not yet. They seek to become the greatest and fiercest warriors in the universe. With every hunt, they learn, they adapt, they improve their technology or their strategy. They're building an army of perfect, unbeatable soldiers until they become unstoppable."

"My god," Steve breathes.

"We're just the newest season," I scrub the tears from my face, willing my headache to pass. This is no time to fall apart. "They will hunt us down, slaughter us, and move on to the next planet. And that isn't even the worst of it."

They watch me, waiting, but the words are drowning under the weight of the alien's memories warping themselves through my mind.

"I've...never read something so malicious," I admit finally. "Even Ultron, who wanted our annihilation, who was ready to exterminate the human race so that they could evolve. This alien, its race, there's no calculation, no focus on the endgame. They take pleasure in the hunt, they revel in it. And most of their kills are not quick, not merciful. They-"

I can't say anymore. Not with the sickening enjoyment lacing the rage and revulsion writhing in my chest, echoes of the creature's mind. I know I will never forget the things I saw, that I will likely see them every night in my sleep for as long as I live.

For a moment we stay silent as we try to absorb the horror of our situation.

"We're not going to give them the chance," Steve says evenly, and I open my eyes to watch him in the darkness. "We have to find the others."

"If they are not already dead."

Blue eyes bore into me. "I have to believe they're not. We're going to find them, and then we are going to put an end to this once and for all."

Vision and I exchange looks. "What do you mean?" I ask. "Shouldn't we be focusing on escape?"

Steve rises, moving to the mouth of the cave, bracing himself with one arm against the stone as he looks out into the jungle. "They're just going to keep coming. We can't let them do this to any more worlds, to any more people. We have to stop them."

"We fought them once and failed," Vision reminds him. "Half of us were captured and the other half left on Earth."

"We killed two of them in the jungle."

"Two," I shake my head. "Steve, there are over a hundred of them on this planet alone, hunting in pairs or small groups."

"The odds of escape are painfully slim," adds Vision. "But staying to ensure their destruction? It's impossible."

"The Avengers have done the impossible before," Steve replies firmly, turning to face us. "We owe it to our world to try. You said it yourself, we're likely not getting off of this planet alive. Maybe we will. Maybe we won't. But I say we take as many of those monsters down as we can."

I don't want to die here.

I don't want to die alone or forgotten, my body some kind of trophy for an alien hunter.

Fear cinches my insides, making my fingers curl. I want to go home. I want to live, I want to-

 _Doesn't matter what you did, or what you were. If you go out there, you fight, and you fight to kill. If you step out that door, you are an Avenger._

I take a deep, steadying breath.

I am an Avenger.

They may have locked me up like a criminal, like an animal, but I am neither of those things. I am not prey to be hunted. I am a predator. And I will not let them do this to anyone else.

I push myself to my feet, Vision rising at my side, and then I look Steve straight in his eyes and ask, "What is the plan?"

* * *

 **Peter Parker**

May's trying to drag me out of bed.

Not cool.

I frown, eyes still closed and heavy with sleep, and mumble my protest as she yanks the bedsheets out from under me, except I'm sliding with them. And she's still pulling.

What the hell?

I drag open my eyes, the lenses of my mask going in and out of focus for a moment before it all comes flooding back to me.

Oh _man_.

I'm curled up on my side in a near fetal position, stashed in a super tightly meshed gray net, the holes so small I can barely slip my fingers through. I tilt my head back to see one of the alien hunters striding easily through the jungle, the top of my net grasped firmly in its right hand.

Another glance shows its compadre walking alongside it, dragging a second netted prisoner behind it.

Dr. Banner!

Oh god, we've been captured. I'd let them get the jump on me like the raptors got that australian dude from Jurassic Park. Only their attack had been so fast, there hadn't even been a chance to say "clever girl". How could I have been so _stupid_?!

"Ow!" I cry as they drag me over a patch of thorn covered ferns with pale, tropical flowers bursting from their spiky stalks.

Sunlight filters through the jungle canopy above, and my stomach sinks. It's already daytime, which means we've been knocked out for who knows how long.

Why did they capture us? If my theory about being hunted is right, why didn't they just shoot us or stab us when they had the chance? Why stuff us into nets and drag us through the jungle? It makes no sense.

Unless…

An almost painful shudder runs through me as bits and pieces of the movie Predators replay in my mind, the only experience I could base this situation on. Hadn't there been a part in the movie where the predators had laid a trap using one of the men? But...the group of soldiers and mercenaries hadn't fallen for it because one of them had admitted to laying a similar trap before.

 _Make a man suffer, make him call out for help, and when the others come, slaughter them all._

My blood runs cold. I may have the quote wrong in my head, but I understand the general idea. And now I am almost positive that they plan on using Dr. Banner and myself as bait for the others.

It would make sense.

Maybe they considered us the weakest of the group. I'd be indignant about that, except for how ridiculously easy it was for them to take us down.

Ughhhh if I get out of this, I'm never letting myself live that one down. Although Dr. Banner had been unconscious when I'd gotten myself captured so easily, so maybe I can still salvage my reputation by coming up with an awesomely epic story of how I'd tried to fend like twenty of them off at once.

 _Priorities, Parker_ , I have to remind myself again. _You have to actually live through this if you want to lie to save your dignity._

I begin squirming within the net, using my strength to try and pry at the mesh surrounding me, trying to tear it apart. The wire like threads dig into my fingers painfully, but they don't split or fray.

Come on, come _on_!

I'm sweating profusely, but this time I think it is more from terror than the heat.

I don't want to be tortured. I don't want to be bait.

I have to get out.

I'm thrashing more earnestly now, my muscles trembling with the effort of trying to tear through the net, even as the alien keeps dragging me through the dense foliage.

"Dr. Banner!" I hiss, but he is silent where he lays curled up in his net. "Dr. Banner, we could really use the Hulk about now!"

Pain explodes in my side, and I flinch and cry out as the blunt end of the alien's spear jabs hard into my ribs.

Eyes watering beneath my mask, I clutch at my undoubtedly heavily bruised side and peer up. The alien still has one hand clutching a handful of the net, its other gripping its spear. Black and red eyes glare furiously down at me, and it raises the spear again, as if warning me what will happen if I don't stop struggling.

I come up with a very rash, very stupid idea.

"My aunt can hit harder than that," I tell it. I don't think they understand english, but I'm pretty sure it will understand if it is being insulted. "I thought you aliens were supposed to be intimidating. Even the friendly blue aliens from Avatar are scarier than you."

Taunting it goes against every single one of my instincts. These aliens _are_ intimidating and scary as hell, and I can see that my quest to piss it off has succeeded.

Dark eyes narrow as it flips the spear in its hand with a deft twist so that the bladed end is aiming straight down towards me. I'm fairly certain it won't kill me, not yet, not when I could potentially be bait or used for some other kind of sport.

I swallow thickly.

At least, I'm pretty sure.

It thrusts the spear down. I guessed right, and it aims straight for my side where it had jabbed me before, seeking to hurt, not kill. I roll to my right, still confined in the folds of the net, and the sharp, jagged blade tears through the top layer of mesh, missing me by less than an inch.

Yes!

I roll back, grabbing the spear just above the blade and slam it upward so that the blunt end slams into the alien's masked chin. Its head jerks back, and then it is falling to the ground from the blow.

Heart hammering in my chest, I try and twist the spear within the net so that the blade slices through more of the tight mesh, but my arms get tangled in my panicked rush. Folds of netting constrict my arm, narrowing my depth of movement as I frantically try to-

The tip of something sharp taps against the center of my forehead.

I immediately go still, the spear still in my hands, both it and my limbs tangled within the the net. Slowly, I drag my eyes up, going nearly cross-eyed as I stare up at the spear pressed against my head, the second alien having dropped Dr. Banner's net to loom over me.

Well...it was worth a shot.

I let go of the spear, putting my hands up within the net in a 'I surrender' gesture. "Uhhh...call it even?"

The alien I'd hit is on its feet now, snarling beneath its mask, wrenching its spear away from the net above me, all of its muscles coiled with rage. It starts for me, spear raised, and the alien pinning me down swings its own spear up to bar its path.

The two seem to converse for a moment in a series of almost dinosaur-like sounds, intermittent with sharp clicks and hissing snarls. One is clearly in favor of slaughtering me on the spot, and the other seems to be keeping a level head, insisting on the probably already agreed upon plan.

I'm caught between terror and amusement. Clearly I possess the ability to royally piss people, or aliens, off, and it is kind of funny how badly this one wants to kill me. Or, it would be funny if I wasn't so worried the other alien would give up and let him.

I mean, even if I hadn't been trying to escape, that alien had that hit coming. My ribs freaking _hurt_.

The argument escalates, the furious one shoving its partner in the chest. It lets out a low growl in response, twirling its spear in its one hand, a blade emerging from its wrist on the other.

Oh, hey, maybe my plan _is_ working, just in a different way than I thought! Maybe the aliens will end up killing each other, and then I can inchworm over to one of their spears and cut myself and Dr. Banner free! Or...the angrier, larger alien will kill its level headed partner and be free to do away with me.

Shit.

As they continue snarling at each other, their postures becoming more and more aggressive, a shadow moves somewhere above them. The movement is small, almost unnoticeable, but my eyes focus on it anyways.

There's something crouched in the tree above us, but the leaves and branches are too dense and tangled to see through. I only see glimpses. A large shadow. A glint of light.

The aliens move so close to each other, their foreheads nearly touch, their growls and hisses growing to deadly roars. Beneath the din of their clashing, my ears pick up a soft thump of sound.

That's when the aliens suddenly stumble away from each other, their snarling turning into hissing inhales as they clutch at their armored stomachs. My eyes widen as I see black, jagged knives embedded into each of their guts.

And crouched in between the aliens on one knee, his hands wrapped around both of those knives, is Bucky.

He lifts his head, his dark hair parting for me to glimpse the deadly wrath on his face, and then he is moving. Silently, he rips the knives free, black blood spurting all over the leaves beneath him, and in a swift move, the Winter Soldier is on his feet, turning to slam a boot into one of the alien's wounded gut.

It shrieks, a rattling sound that hurts my ears, and Bucky whirls, raising his metal arm as the other alien stabs down with its spear. He blocks the blow, kicking out at the creature's shin, and it buckles, going down on one knee.

Bucky swiftly and efficiently slashes its throat.

My stomach lurches with nausea, and I look sharply away from the blood pouring from the gash.

Flipping the dripping knives in his hands, Bucky turns, his eyes dark and furious as he advances on the other alien, who crouches in a defensive stance, ready for him.

I notice suddenly that my hand is actually through the small rip in the net. I wriggle my fingers, elated in my small amount of freedom, and then I am aiming my webshooter.

Just as the alien charges at Bucky, I fire, the web attaching to the alien's spear with a soft thwack. I yank back my arm, but I can only go so far. My arm gets stuck in the net, but the shot did its job, the alien's spear now on the jungle floor several feet away from the battle.

Bucky takes a running leap into the air, spinning so that his elbow connects with the alien's forehead in a violent blow that sends it stumbling back. Bucky keeps coming at it mercilessly, slamming his metal fist into the alien's stomach wound again before slashing out with his knife.

The alien lurches back, its own knives jutting out from its wrists, bringing them together in an X to block another stab of Bucky's blade.

I look for an opening to help, but they are moving too fast, their fight too deadly. I could accidentally web up Bucky in my attempt to give him an advantage against the alien. But Bucky doesn't need my help.

In a series of badass moves too quick for me to follow, his knife is suddenly sticking out of the alien's chest, and with another slam of his fist into the alien's masked face, it collapses to the ground.

Breathing heavily, he stands over it for a moment, his shoulders heaving with the force of his breaths. Then Bucky adjusts his grips on his two knives, and turns to stalk towards me. I nearly flinch at the intensity of his expression, the murderous look lingering in his eyes, the black spots of blood splattered on his jaw.

But then he is kneeling beside me, his gaze softening slightly, his lips curving up into a smirk. "Told you I'd find you, kid."

* * *

 **A/N: Told you I'd find you. :D**

 **FINALLY! I know you all have been wondering where the heck Bucky was, and I've been anxious to bring him back in, but I had to do it in an epic way. ;)**

 **As you guys know, I like to keep a few chapters ahead of what I post, and I had your beta, PippinStrange, look over the newest chapter yesterday, one I've been DYING to write for ages now, and her reaction was GOLDEN. If it is any indication to how you all will react, you guys are in for a freaking treat. lol. But we have a ways to go before we reach that point! So, onward!**

 **PippinStrange, I couldn't do this without you. Your work is so inspiring, every time I read/reread it, which is often, I get inspired with new ideas and an urgent need to write. Your reactions and responses to my writing are the freaking best, and seriously, make me beyond happy. If you readers haven't read Down Came the Rain or Where They Go, you are seriously missing out.**

 **Yes, I know, I am the Queen of Cliffhangers and teasers. I think maybe I should change my author name to that? Queen of Cliffhangers? XD What do you guys think? lol**

 **And now, a few words to my bomb review squad ;)...**

* * *

sparklydog7: :D I mean, you know he's with Bucky and Peter again! But you'll have to wait for more until the next chapter. ;)

Jeyfeather1234: Steve and Wanda and Vision together make me so happy! :D

Shoyzz: Totally could see Pandora from Avatar! Only the sinister, creepy version! And look! I gave Peter a break! lol. Your reviews are, as always, a delight, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

LoonyLovegood1981: Eeee thank you! The fangirl squealing feeling is the BEST, and I get so giddy to think that people feel that way about my stories! Thank you so much for your review, and look! Peter is now not only NOT alone, but with BRuce AND Bucky. Sometimes I can be nice. ;) Sometimes...lol! Lots of love to you as well!

Kairianna864: THanks so much! Hope it answered all your questions!

AppleSpongeCake: *Urgently counts teeth to make sure they are all still there*... XD

cargumentluv: :D

Web-HeadSuperFan: OMG Thank you! As to your Star Wars question, you're referring to the animated series? I've seen bits and pieces, a couple episodes here and there, but haven't seen most of it or watched it all the way through. Are there really a lot of references? THat's crazy! And completely unintentional! I love long reviews, so never apologize! The more thoughts I get to read, the better :) As far as scheduled release dates, I could do that! Maybe start posting every Monday if I am able? I'll see what I can do.

StarStepper: Of course not! I'm just...a sick author. XD

Seawell: LOL totally! Bucky was totally fine on his own. XD

GinaBoo: Thank you so much! I try to come up with new ideas and am always thinking up new scenarios for these characters to tide me over from Infinity War. lol. SO glad you are enjoying this so much! I love your reviews!

Guest: Thank you so much! I will do my best!

Writer-at-Heart0: Thanks!

bgib99: Ahhhhhh thank you! That's always the best compliment, when someone says its like an avengers movie. :D I wish!

gandalf537: (AKA Bomb Review Squad Member 1002083354839) LOL that cracked me up, and I wish there were that many! lol! Yes, I definitely accept that title as Queen of Cliffhangers. I am a cruel, cruel writer, and I love it. XD Holy crap your reviews are so fun to read. THank you so much!

* * *

 **COMING UP**

 **Chapter Eight: Flesh and Blood**

 **Bucky is reunited with Bruce and Peter, Clint and Tony have a heart to heart, and the other Avengers lay a trap of their own...**

 **If you guys thought the cliffhangers in the past were bad, you have no idea what's coming...**


	8. Flesh and Blood

**Chapter Eight: Flesh and Blood**

* * *

 **...**

 **...**

 **Bucky Barnes**

Beneath the thick net, the kid reaches up and yanks off his mask, his face slack with relief. "Hey," he says, a little breathlessly.

"Hey," I say back, slipping one of the black, jagged knives into the holster at my belt. I reach down and grab a handful of the thin, wiry netting, and with the other, I raise my second knife and slice through it in a smooth motion.

My heart is still hammering in my chest, my adrenaline pounding through my blood. I am still ready for a fight, my body restless with unspent energy. The moment I had caught sight of those monsters looming over the kid, trapped in his net, I had slipped into that killing calm, that place where I let my deadly instincts direct my movements.

And now, coming down from that silent, murderous part of me that would never truly go away, even with Hydra's brainwashing removed from my head, my body feels overheated, my emotions surging to the surface in a violent mix that keeps my heart beating too fast.

Peter pushes bunches of the netting aside as I make one more clean slice, wincing and clutching at his side as he gets to his feet.

I frown, but he waves me off. "Alien jabbed me. Just a bruise."

My eyes narrow at that, but I make no comment, instead nodding and turning to walk towards Banner, who is still unconscious within his net.

"How'd you find us?" the kid follows as I kneel down and begin cutting.

"Happy accident," I reply as I slide the second knife into my belt. "Those aliens were loud."

"Yeah, that'd be my fault," the kid admits, rubbing the back of his head. "I sort of pissed one off and tried to escape. It...didn't work as well as I hoped."

"Worked well enough," I point out as I pry the rest of the netting away from Banner's curled up form. "Distracted them enough for me to get the drop on them."

"Where'd you get those knives?" Peter asks curiously, his eyes on the blades on my belt.

"One of them was following me last night. I doubled back and killed it, snapped the knives from its wrists," I reply shortly as I heave the unconscious scientist over my shoulder and rise.

The kid's eyes are comically wide as they look from the knives, to the dead aliens, to me, then back to the knives. "Dude, that's _insane_."

"Come on," I order. "If I heard them, other hunters could have too. Grab their spears, and let's get the hell out of here."

"Right. Yes, that's-uh sure," Peter looks a little pale as he picks his way over the corpses and pools of dark blood to tentatively grab each of the spears.

"You good?" I ask him, just to be sure.

He nods, giving me a small, tense smile. "I'm a lot better now that I'm not being dragged off by an alien through the jungle. Thanks, by the way."

I adjust my hold on Banner, turning away towards the clearing I can see through the copse of thin, leafy trees. "Let's get out of here."

* * *

"Ugh. What happened?"

The kid and I look up to where Banner is slowly sitting up, the palms of both his hands pressed into his eyes.

We've taken shelter at the bottom of an embankment, the hard earth curving over us almost like a cave, a thick tangle of vines dropping over the top to make a sort of curtain to conceal us. It's slightly cooler in our makeshift shelter, but no less humid, and the air smells heavily of wet soil.

I'd kept the pace fast, unforgiving as we trekked through the jungle, but the kid kept up without complaint. He probably wanted to be as far from those alien bodies as we could get. I'd seen the look on his face when I'd killed them. I know that he is nowhere near as familiar with death as I am.

That may have to change soon. But I will do my damn best to make sure it doesn't.

My back to the earthen wall behind me, I watch as Banner comes to, still groggy and out of it.

"We sort of got captured," the kid tells him.

Banner looks up sharply, his eyes wide and panicked, but Peter rushes on to say, "But we were rescued! We're safe now, with Bucky."

"Oh," Banner blinks at me, his shoulders relaxing slightly. "Hey. Uh-thanks, I guess."

He looks to the kid. "I remember being in the tree and then...I think they gassed me. I started getting real tired, but I conked out too fast, like back up on the ship. Did they gas you?"

"Uh….no," Peter shakes his head. "I came down and you were gone. Then I found you being carried off in a net by one of the aliens-and... they ambushed me, like _twenty_ of them-You should have seen it, they were freaking everywhere! I tried to fight them off, but they got me in the end."

I squint at him. "Twenty of them."

The kid's brown eyes flit to me as his ears begin to redden. "Er-maybe like, fifteen. I don't remember. I was too busy uh...you know, fighting and all."

Banner's eyes go round again as he looks at me with awe. "You had to take down fifteen of them to save us?"

Peter is staring at me, his eyes wide as if he's screaming at me mentally to go along with it, but his lips twitch nervously, like he's unsure whether I will out him or not.

"Something like that," I reply, and the kid's shoulders sag with relief. He gives me a small grin, and I raise my brows as if to say, you owe me.

"Jesus," mutters Banner, going back to rubbing at his eyes. "Really getting sick of this whole alien thing. When we get back to Earth, I am retiring from field work. Just a nice quiet lab, far, far away from Tony Stark and his mad scientist schemes and Avengers work. I'm done. This is...I'm done. I need a break."

The kid looks worried at that, but I can read Banner better. I don't know him well, but I can see enough signs that although this man is clearly overwhelmed and exhausted, when it comes down to it, he can no more stay away from the fight than Steve can.

"So what do we do now?" breathes Peter, looking to me.

I can see the relief in his eyes, a little responsibility lifted off of his shoulders. Banner isn't exactly a liability with his genius intellect and green secret weapon, but traversing an alien jungle wouldn't be his forte. And with the kid being so inexperienced...I'm more than a little surprised that they have lasted this long on their own.

"Steve will be heading for high ground," I answer confidently. "There's a mountain range not too far from here. If we follow the sun, we should make it there by tomorrow."

"What about Wanda and Vision?' asks Banner, frowning.

"We have to work under the assumption that they are smart enough to figure that out, or that they are hopefully with Steve. Either way, we can't stay in this valley. Too many of the aliens. Too many traps."

Peter shudders. "High ground. Got it. I'm in."

Banner's eyes are on the knives on my belt. "Are those...from _inside_ the aliens' wrists?"

In answer, I slide one free, flipping it in my hand to offer him the blade, bone handle first. He takes it carefully in both hands, examining it closely, tapping the flat sides and rubbing his thumb gently along the jagged edge.

A bead of blood appears on his skin and he lets out a soft hiss. "This was part of their bone structure," he murmurs. "That's insane. Look, it's not even the same material as their bones."

He's right. What I'd been using as handles was actually part of the alien's radius, the bones as white as ours.

"Is it the same stuff they use to make their armor?" Peter asks, peering at it.

"Looks like it," Banner replies.

"It is," I confirm. "That's why I was able to stab straight through their chest plates, because my weapon was just as strong."

"How the hell would they manufacture something like that?" Banner frowns at me.

"If I had to guess...from the bodies of their dead. Those who die in battle, who get killed in the hunt, when they kill each other out of spite, who the hell knows?"

"Seriously?! That's...disgusting," the kid shudders, eyeing the knife in Banner's hands with an appalled look. "So wrong on so many levels."

"These guys are something else," Banner mutters, handing me back the knife. "Even Sakaar wasn't this barbaric."

I take the knife back and slide it into my belt, leaning forward to pick up the two spears Peter had brought with us. I slide them into the holster across my back, the one I'd picked up from the same alien I'd killed and taken its hidden blades.

"Awesome," I think I hear the kid whisper to himself.

"We need to keep moving, try to make as much ground as possible before nightfall," I look to Banner. "You up for it?"

Banner sighs. "No, but when do I ever get what I want? Let's go trek through the jungle and try not to get killed, shall we?"

* * *

 **Clint Barton**

I never pegged Stark for a kid person.

If you asked me six months ago which Avenger I would trust the least with my kids, my finger would be pointing straight at Tony Stark.

Now? Well, I guess it would be Banner. Bruce is nice and all, but kids are really good at getting under your skin, and when your skin tends to turn green when you get pissed off, it's maybe best you don't look into child care as a hobby or career.

I watch as Stark idly fiddles with the Wakandan technology, flipping through 3-D holographic images and blueprints. I can tell he isn't actually paying attention to any of it, though this should be like a flippin theme park for him. His eyes are unfocused, his mouth downturned, and I can count the wrinkles on his forehead from here.

Heaving a sigh, I slip off my perch on the counter, passing Sam and Rhodey in what appears to be a deep conversation concerning flight patterns and the most badass move they've ever done. I slide into the chair beside Tony, planting my feet on the ground and swivelling back and forth in my seat.

"How many times are you gonna cycle though that thing?" I ask, nodding towards the 3-D diagrams.

"A few hundred, maybe," Stark replies as he swipes through several more.

"You're worried."

"No shit, sherlock."

"The kid'll be ok."

"Why does everyone insist on telling me that?" Tony swivels towards me, his face full of impatience. "We don't know that. We can't possibly know that."

I raise an eyebrow. "It's called comfort, Tony."

"It's called bullshit, Clint. God, I am so sick of doing this."

"Doing what?"

Stark pinches the bridge of his nose with his fingers, squeezing his eyes shut as he waves around us with his free hand. "This. Getting the kid out of some kind of trouble. All this anxiety about whether or not he's actually dead this time. I feel like I'm on my last goddamn life every time."

I nod thoughtfully, then lean forward to rest my forearms on top of my knees. "Can I tell you something?"

Stark looks at me, brows furrowing. "What?"

"That feeling never goes away."

Irritation turns his expression into a scowl. "Thank you for that helpful tidbit. Don't you have other people to snoop on or arrows to count?"

"Worrying comes with the territory. It's part of the whole kid thing. But Pete will be ok. Cap's with him."

"Pete?" It's Stark's turn to raise an eyebrow.

"Sure," I shrug. "I call him that all the time."

"I'm sorry, you've lost me," Tony gives me a puzzled look. "Since when are you and Parker buddies?"

"Oh, we're not, exactly. He babysits."

"He...babysits."

"The little bastard owed me for nearly strangling me on Christmas Eve," I point out. "I asked him if he was good with kids, he said he didn't know, but he thought so. Then I got his number and now he babysits for me and Laura. The kids love him."

Stark looks absolutely baffled, the expression so satisfying, I wish I could take a picture of it to show Nat later. "When the hell were you going to tell me that?"

I shrug again. "Thought you knew. He's been to the farm at least ten times since Christmas. You should see some of the shit he and Cooper get into."

"Huh."

Stark seems lost for words, a first for him probably, then he shakes his head and lets out a short laugh.

Okoye's voice calls back to us from the cockpit. "We should be arriving in three hours."

Tony stiffens, eyes to the front, then looks back at me with a grim expression. "Time to gear up."

* * *

 **Wanda Maximoff**

There are more than we expect.

Four alien hunters are in the clearing, murmuring in their strange, guttural language.

I press my back against the smooth bark of the tree, careful to avoid a line of insects crawling up and down its trunk. Slowly, I reach up and tighten my ponytail, then risk another glance.

The dense jungle plants are ankle deep to the aliens, the canopy above trailing down curling, leaf covered vines in a scattering across the clearing. Two stand with their backs to me, armed with spears. Another is crouched low to the ground, its gloved hand brushing against the still smoldering campfire we had left purposefully behind.

The last one is standing a few feet away from its companions, its eyes searching the trees as it holds a menacing looking gun in its hands.

They seem to be debating how fresh the fire is, how far we might have gotten, which direction. Good. That means they have no idea they just stumbled into a trap of our own making.

We had planned on at most two pursuers, not four, but it is too late to stop the events from unfolding. The aliens are here.

Steve told me to minimize my attacks, to keep my power as contained as possible to avoid drawing attention. I don't like it, but I understand that the crimson psionic energy would be a beacon to other hunters.

Taking a steadying breath, I let the faintest wisp of power come to my fingertips. I lean against the tree, slowly peeking around its edge until I can see all four of them clearly.

Steve and Vision wait for me to make the first move, hidden on other sides of the clearing.

My eyes trail up the dangling vines, and an addition to the plan comes quickly to my mind.

Here we go.

I bring up my hand, fingers curling as I reach it above my head, then slam it down. Red light encircles the vines, yanking them down, and with a crack like a whip, a pair of them wind themselves around the two aliens' necks whose backs are to me.

Half stepping from my cover, I bring up both of my hands, my palms facing each other briefly before I shove one upward towards the sky, my power stretching between them.

The vine nooses jerk up towards the trees, taking the aliens with them at least twenty feet off the ground, their weapons dropping to the ground as they clutch at their throats, legs kicking.

I glance back, and the alien with the gun is staring down its sights at me, its finger curling on the trigger.

Vision phases up from the ground behind it, wrapping his arms around the creature to shove the gun up just as it fires. A burst of pale light shoots towards me, and I dive to the ground, feeling the heat sear my skin as the bolt passes above me.

Pushing myself up on my forearms, I look to the clearing as Steve slams his shield into the third alien's skull.

Above, the two I'd yanked up by their throats with vines slam feet first into the ground behind Steve, the blades on their wrists glistening. They'd cut through the vines. Vision still grapples with the gunner, and Steve is adjusting his grip on his shield as he turns in a slow circle to keep all three aliens within his sight.

Gritting my teeth, I surge to my feet, stalking into the clearing, a red aura of power curling around my arms. Drawing my hands into my chest, I bare my teeth into a snarl and shove my right palm towards one of the aliens cornering Steve.

A thin blast of psionic energy slams into it, sending it flying back and crashing through the trees.

Steve uses my distraction, shifting his leg back into a powered stance as he flings his shield. It spins, catching the light as it flies, the edge of it crashing into one of them by the throat. I watch as Steve charges towards it, jumping into the air and slamming both feet into its chest. They both go down, and the third alien is turning towards me, black and red eyes glinting as it snarls beneath its mask.

Vision makes a pained noise, and my gaze jerks in his direction, eyes widening in horror as I see the two grappling over the gun with one hand, the alien stabbing down with its knived wrist with the other. Vision's right hand shoots up to halt the descending blade and then-

SLAM.

Pain explodes in my jaw, my head snapping to the right from the blow, and I stumble. Another blow makes me cry out, falling to my hands and knees so hard, the impact radiates up my bones.

A boot drives into my gut, and my body is flying, hitting the ground and rolling until I slam to a halt against the roots of a tree.

Panting, gripping my stomach, my face scrunched up in pain, I look up at the advancing alien.

Behind it, I glimpse a still struggling Vision, reluctant to use the beam from the yellow stone in his forehead for fear of drawing even more attention to us, and Steve, taking on two of them on his own, his shield nowhere in sight.

We'd set this trap for them, and had it been one or two like we had been expecting, the aliens would have already been dead, and we would have been moving on towards the mountains. Instead, we fight for our lives like we were the ones who had been ambushed.

A hand wraps harshly in my ponytail, yanking me up to my knees, and I cry out again at the sharp pain in my scalp, my hands shooting up to grip the alien's.

Blinking my heavily watering eyes, I look up at its cruel face, at the black tattoos running across its brow above dark, merciless eyes. Its free hand twists, revealing the jagged blade, poised to drive into my heart or slice across my throat.

No.

I will not die like this, on my knees, tears streaming down my face.

Anger, hot and terrible, surges up through me, my skin radiating heat from the force of it. I can feel my eyes shift to a burning red, scarlet power emanating from my entire body like the undulating streams of the Northern Lights on Earth.

The alien's eyes widen, their dark depths reflecting my red light. It shoves the blade towards me, and I reach up with my palm, fingers splayed. Its hand stops in its tracks, wreathed in my power, and with a curling jerk of my fingers, its wrist snaps backwards, a loud crack filling my ears.

It lets out an amphibious shriek, stumbling back, releasing its grip on my hair, and I slowly get to my feet, chest heaving.

I let my power swell, crossing my arms in front of me and then thrusting them out to either side of my body, and the alien's spine splits in half with a horrific, muffled crunch.

Looking up, I see Vision has dispatched the alien with the gun, and is holding another back by its arms as Steve thrusts a spear through their chests, the tip of it sliding harmlessly through a phasing Vision.

The other two lie dead on the ground.

My jaw is throbbing, my stomach feeling heavily bruised, but I head towards them as they let the final alien fall.

"Are you alright?" Vision is suddenly in front of me, his hands gently gripping me by my upper arms.

"Fine," I assure him, placing a hand against his cheek.

"That was way too close," pants Steve. "We are going to have to be more careful, only attacking if they're in smaller numbers. We nearly lost that fight."

"They would have found us if we hadn't struck first," I insist, stepping out of Vision's arms to gesture at the bodies. "We were too close to the trap."

Steve nods, his face grim.

"I know it would be highly beneficial to take out as many of the hunters as we can," Vision begins. "But perhaps it would be more prudent to make it to the mountains first, gain high ground, hopefully reconnect with the others. If we stop to lay our own traps and attack every alien we come across, we won't make it by nightfall."

"Vision's right," I agree. "These fights will drain us. We need to come up with a better plan."

Steve heaves a sigh, his face looking as weary as I feel. "You're right. We need to stay low for now. Especially after that fight. We've likely just alerted every hunter within twenty miles to our position."

"Then we should leave at once," Vision places a hand on the small of my back, and I lean into his touch.

A shot rings out through the clearing, and Vision's hand drops from me as he stumbles forward, eyes wide.

With a jagged hole in his chest.

* * *

 **A/N: *Cough cough* Um...don't be mad?**

 **I know, I know, I'm the Queen of Cliffhangers, I'm cruel and awful and I cannot help myself. Ah well. Onward then?**

 **THANK YOU SO MUCH for the last chapter's response! Your reviews were extra wonderful, so I thought as I gift, I would update even faster than normal. Although, I updated with a big cliffie, so maybe it wasn't so much a gift. Point being, you guys are great, I absolutely adore your reviews. So thank you.**

 **Special thanks as always to PippinStrange, my beta, for her incredible encouragement and fangirling and kind words that occasionally make me cry, they are so nice. I couldn't do this without you! Definitely head over to her page if you haven't to read her Spiderman fics, as they are the best on the site. You will not regret it! Down Came the Rain was what got me writing MCU fanfiction, and Where They Go heals all the wounds Infinity War left behind.**

 **I will try to update soon since I'm leaving you guys in such a cruel place. Just remember, this is a tale fraught with danger, more cliffhangers than I care to count, and no one is guaranteed survival. :D**

* * *

sparklydog9: Woohoo!

EleanorGardner: OMG thank you so much! I admit I was late aboard the Bucky train, but once I jumped in, I fell for his character hard. I love him and Sebastian Stan, and I have so much fun playing with his character in my writing.

Luckias: Thanks so much! I am too!

Jeyfeather1234: Ahhhh thank you so so so much! "Sweet mother of cheese" XD that was hilarious. THank you for your amazing review! I love writing Wanda! Seriously can't get enough

Kairianna864: Thank you very much! I'm so happy to hear you are enjoying this! I will try to keep putting out chapters as fast as I am able

LoonyLovegood1981: Yassss Bucky is so badass, I love it! And Peter will definitely get some moments of his own in here. Don't worry. Yes, no one is safe here in the jungle. XD Glad you're along for the ride!

cargumentluv: Thank you! Pretty sure epic is his middle name. lol

spidermanpls: Me too!

Web-HeadSuperFan: Wow! Yeah, that's crazy! I never saw those episodes, but now I really want to! That idea is a really good one, and there may be something just slightly similar in the works...but maybe not. You'll see ;) And I understand if you wait for the next chapter to read this one XD

icotnoir: Yeah! So kickass!

StarStepper: omg thanks! Thank YOU so much! :D

AppleSpongeCake: Dear lord. I may have to hire PippinStrange to be my security detail until this fic is over. XD Glad you loved the chapter!

screechyfangirl: You know it!

GinaBoo: Ah thank you so much! Love doing epic entrances for the Winter Soldier! I love Nat and Okoye together too! Those chicks are badass, especially together. you can definitely expect more of that in the future. :)

bgib99: Yay! I love making people's day! Reviews make mine :) Thank you so much!

Andy Frost: Peter's movie references are so fun to work in! And heck yes to badass Avengers and epic entrances!

Up-In-The-Clouds1285: Ahhh thank you so very much! And welcome aboard! So glad you're enjoying them!

gandalf537: Man oh man I love your reviews. Lol. When I was writing that first part I immediately thought, ooh I have to do a Jurassic Park nod for this. XD Glad you caught it right away! Eeeee thank you so much! I love Nat and Okoye together, so badass, and I cannot get enough writing for Wanda. YOUR REVIEW MADE MY LIFE! Stan Lee? Movies? Comics? I would absolutely DIE. I AM dying, knowing that someone thinks they are good enough for that level. PippinStrange and I were even discussing how cool these would be as audiobooks! Thank you SO SO SO SO much for your wonderful words, as always. So MUCH LOVE!

SummerMistedDragon: :D

Mikaelaokatzune: I don't mind long reviews at all! I love them! Welcome aboard, and bless you for reading all my stories in one sitting! Thank you so much! I love hearing people's theories, it is so entertaining for me as a writer to see what people come up with and if they align with my thoughts and plans. I am a big whump fan too, so definitely expect plenty of that. Thank you very, very much for reading my work, for taking the time to write a wonderful review for me to read, and for just being awesome! I so appreciate it!

Heroes21: YASSSSSS

Shoyzz: I never get tired of hearing it! lol! Thank you so much! He and Wanda are my favorites to write for, for sure. Ooh and Nat. And Tony. And...ah heck I love writing all of them. lol. So glad you're enjoying! Sorry about the cliffie! lol

Shadow-wolf78: Thank you very much!

* * *

 **Truly, I apologize for the big cliffhanger and the backlash sure to follow :D, and want to thank you all for those marvelous reviews. This ride ain't over yet folks...it's just getting started.**

 **COMING SOON**

 **Chapter Nine: Five Feet and Rising**

 **A brand new pov I have NEVER written from before, one you might not expect, Peter, Bucky and Bruce head up the mountain, bringing the word "cliffhanger" to new heights (sorry, I couldn't resist. you'll see), and the aftermath of the trap in the clearing...**

 **...the fate of Vision**


	9. Five Feet and Rising

**Chapter Nine: Five Feet and Rising**

* * *

 **...**

 **...**

 **Ned Leeds**

SLAM.

I jerk backwards as my locker slams closed barely an inch away from my nose with a loud metallic sound clanging loudly in my ears.

Swallowing, I stare wide eyed up at Michelle Jones, whose palm is pressed against my locker. MJ's eyes are narrowed into slits, her mouth curved into a frown as she peers down at me.

"Leeds," she deadpans.

Ohhhhhhhhhh shit.

I go for cheerfully oblivious. "Hey, MJ! How's it happening?"

How's it happening? I don't think I've ever said that in my life. It also doesn't make any sense.

MJ expertly arches an eyebrow. Damn, I wish I could do that. When I try to raise one eyebrow, both of mine shoot up and I just look super surprised.

"Where is he?" she asks.

"Uh, who?"

Her expression remains unimpressed. "Parker. Where is he?"

"Oh, Peter?" I clarify like there's some other Parker in this school. There's not.

MJ takes a step closer, getting into my personal bubble. I fight the urge to take a step back, trying not to seem guilty as beads of sweat begin to form on the back of my neck.

"Who else would I be talking about?"

"Well-"

"That was a rhetorical question. Don't answer it. Where is Peter Parker?"

"He didn't text you? He has like, a super bad case of the flu. Highly contagious," I nod, shifting the straps on my backpack. "I'm not even allowed over there."

"The flu."

"Yep! Nasty one. Trust me, you don't want to go anywhere near the Parker residence. That place should be, like, quarantined," I give a shudder to add to the effect.

MJ slowly crosses her arms over her chest. "He was well enough to text _you_ , wasn't he?"

Uh-oh. Okay, gotta backtrack now. Don't want Peter coming back from space to a pissed off girlfriend, or whatever the heck those two were...are.

"Uh no."

She stares, waiting.

"Er...his aunt texted me. Yeah!" I jump on my excuse. Quick thinking, Leeds. "I was blowing up his phone. It was driving May nuts. Plus, I offered to get his makeup work for him."

I hold up the stack of papers I was getting for my locker, thankful for the solidifying proof backing up my story.

MJ's eyes narrow further, and I swear she is looking straight into my soul. It's absolutely terrifying, and yet, I can see why Peter is into her.

"Why are you sweating, Ned?" MJ asks, her voice quiet and sort of...concerned? sweet? Like a scary kind of sweet. Like she's mocking me. Like she can see through all my lies. Oh god.

"Sweating?" I squeak.

She steps closer, tilting her head and I realize I am one of those furry little animals on the Discovery Channel and she is the snake about to devour me. "You aren't nervous, are you? 'Cause if you're telling me the truth, there would be no reason for you to be nervous, would there?"

I swallow with a loud gulp. "I-I'm not nervous. Pshh. No. No, I'm just...we had P.E. just now. So...leftover sweat."

"We were in P.E. together. You spent the entire period on your phone."

"Dressing out for P.E. is very physically taxing for me right now because I strained my...deltoid. So it takes awhile and it's hard and I sweat."

I honestly don't know where deltoids are.

MJ scowls. "Fine. But if you hear from him, you text me, got it?"

I nod frantically, a probably hysterical looking smile on my face. "Got it. Yep! Can do. Will do. For sure."

I top it all off with a thumbs up and she rolls her eyes, turning to stalk down the hallway. Letting out a long breath of relief, I slump against the wall of lockers, wiping my sweat covered forehead with my sleeve.

That was way too close.

Tucking Peter's makeup work under my arm, I whip out my phone and shoot a couple texts to May.

 _Me: MJ cornered me by the lockers (wide-eyed emoji)_

After a few minutes of staring at it, waiting for Peter's aunt to respond, I see the ellipses. She's typing back.

 _Aunt May: Am I supposed to know what that means? Is MJ code for something?_

Oh. Oops

 _Me: Michelle. Jones. Peter's...gf, I guess?_

Aw man, does May not know about MJ? Did I just out their relationship to his aunt? Crap, Peter is going to kill me.

 _Aunt May: Oh, the girl he kissed on New Year's?_

I let out a sigh of relief.

 _Me: Yeah. She's suspicious. Told her he has the flu. (green-faced barf emoji)_

 _Me: I think she bought it._

 _Aunt May: Good. Thank you._

I stare at the screen for a few moments, but it looks like she's done with the conversation.

 _Me: Any word yet?_

 _Aunt May: …_

 _Aunt May: …_

 _Aunt May: …_

 _Aunt May: No. Sorry, kiddo._

 _Me: No worries. Txt me if you hear anything_

 _Aunt May: I will. (heart emoji)_

That makes me smile. May never uses emojis.

Sighing, I put my phone into my pocket and head down the hall, trying not to think about how Peter had been kidnapped by aliens, how he's somewhere in space, maybe hurt, maybe…

I'm trying not to think about how my best friend is missing again.

And I'm failing.

* * *

 **Peter Parker **

Bucky insists on a stealthy, silent course of action as we trek through the alien jungle. He's alert, eyes constantly scanning the trees, muscles tensing at every rustling in the bushes nearby.

It's smart, trying to be as quiet as possible while we are being hunted by maybe even hundreds of killer aliens.

But it also sucks.

I talk when I'm nervous. I talk when I'm bored. Ok, I pretty much talk all the time.

And now that I can't talk, I think. And my thoughts aren't exactly something I want to delve in too deeply. Not when panicked worries about the future nag at my brain. Not when the past is lapping at the forefront of my mind like waves on a dark lake, making sure I know that if I take even the smallest step back, I'll be submerged in its icy depths.

God. See? This is what happens when I am left to my own thoughts. I get weirdly...poetic. And moody. Maybe that's just part of being a teenager? Or hey, you know, from all the fun ptsd.

Or both.

Is this what my superhero career is going to be like? One huge disaster after another, each time wondering if I'll get to go home to my aunt and my friends, or if this will be the time that actually kills me?

If this is all it will ever be, is it worth living like this?

My eyes are on Dr. Banner's back in front of me, Bucky in the lead.

Yes. My answer is yes.

I mean, I sincerely hope that I will get better at this, that every few months I won't be kidnapped or captured or infected or hunted or whatever. That would be swell. But even if it is, if I get to save people in the process, if I can prevent a single person from losing a parent, a friend...an uncle…

I would go through any of it. All of it. I'll do this until I die or physically can't do it anymore.

Which, hey, may be in a couple of hours. But still.

I really, really hope we make it out of here. I want to go home to Aunt May, want to apologize for not coming home right away like I promised. I want to gorge myself on that meatloaf she made, (seriously, Aunt May _finally_ makes something incredible and I get taken off world?! not cool) and I want to binge watch Netflix with Ned. I want to kiss MJ again. I want to get the hell out of this suit and lay on my bed with the air conditioning on full blast.

Hey! There is a positive to all this.

I am finally cured of my inability to handle being even slightly cold! Awesome. I would honestly give anything for even a cool breeze.

My mind drifts, coming up with a weird meshed up fantasy of all my recent thoughts into one epic vision. If I could be anywhere right now, I'd be in the swimming pool at Abe's house (since he's the only one I know who actually has a swimming pool), with Ned and May, who is making all the meatloaf I can want, 'cause meatloaf totally belongs at a pool party, and MJ is there, swimming with me, giving me a sly grin that gives me all the feels and-

"Oof!" I walk right into Dr. Banner's back, catching myself before I fall on my ass.

He raises a brow at me as he looks over his shoulder.

Ah. Bucky's fist is in the air, calling for a halt. At least, I think that's what that means. Isn't that what the soldiers in the movies do?

I tense, standing on my tiptoes to look over Dr. Banner's shoulder at Bucky. Does he see something? Are there aliens nearby?

Dr. Banner and I both wait, exchanging tense looks. Well, Dr. Banner's is tense. I suppose he can't see mine beneath my mask. My widening lenses should give him a pretty good indication though.

After a long moment, Bucky waves us forward, striding into the jungle like he owns it. I shrug as Dr. Banner looks back at me, and then we press on again.

God, it's hot.

I hope the others are ok. I wonder if Bucky's right, if Captain America and the others are heading to the mountains like we are, if we will run into them there. Gosh, I hope so. Somehow this all becomes a little less terrifying the more people are in our group.

Group is the wrong word.

Band? Club?

Nah those are dumb.

Company?

Better, but still no.

Hmm...

Fellowship!

I nearly give a cheer, but remember Bucky's rule of silence at the last minute. Instead, I pump my fist in the air.

I mean, as of right now we are a pretty small fellowship, and not quite as epic since we don't have a wizard, but if we meet up with the others, I think we could nearly fit the criteria. This sets me thinking, and I seize this line of thought with both hands, desperate to keep my mind off of more depressing things.

Cap is definitely Aragorn. The noble warrior destined for greatness, prone to occasional brooding. Bucky could be Boromir. Also a badass, but...Boromir was sort of a dick for awhile. Plus he died, so that's out.

If Cap is Aragorn, wouldn't that make Bucky Legolas by default, since they are friends? I nearly laugh out loud. Definitely not. Besides, pretty sure Clint has dibs on Legolas.

What about-

Dr. Banner stumbles over a root in front of me, cursing softly as he stumbles off to his right. My spider-senses blare with warning, and I am lunging forward just as his foot crosses a tripwire with a loud, sudden snap.

The ground opens up in front of him, and, arms pinwheeling, the scientist goes down. But I am already there, sticking my feet to the ground and seizing him by his belt as he leans over a deep pit filled with five foot long black spikes.

"Holy shit!" Dr. Banner cries as I haul him backwards, breaking the code of silence as we both fall onto our asses.

Bucky steps to the edge of the pit and peers down at the spikes with a frown. He casts me a glance beneath his hair. "Nice catch, kid."

"Thanks."

I look over to Dr. Banner, who is breathing heavily, eyes wide. Is it just me, or is he looking a little…?

"Dr. Banner?" I ask cautiously. "You ok?"

The green pallor coloring his cheeks slowly fades back to his normal skin tone as he takes a few deep breaths and shakes his head.

"I'm good. Sorry. It's a lot of...excitement the past few days. It's starting to get to me."

Bucky and I exchange looks.

That's definitely not good. If Dr. Banner loses control and becomes the Hulk, every alien hunter on this planet will zero in on our position. And without the others, I don't think we would stand a chance, even with the big guy at our side.

"I got it," Dr. Banner insists, and I help him to his feet.

"Come on," Bucky says, striding past several massive, moss covered boulders. "We're nearly at the lake."

I perk up. "A lake? How do you know?"

Bucky gives me a flat look over his shoulder as he points down the slope. Just past the copse of tall jungle trees is a wide, glistening lake.

Oh. Duh.

It's an effort not to just leap up into the trees and swing the rest of the way to the water, I am so eager. But I keep formation, Dr. Banner safely back in the middle, and follow them down to the water's edge.

I don't want to admit it, but the sight in front of me?

It's awesome.

The shore of the lake is dark, reflecting the dense canopy above it, but at its center, sunlight beams down upon its rippling surface, turning the water into an array of blues, greens, and glints of bright white.

Tall, stalky reeds grow along the perimeter, as if barring all who would enter it, and beyond the lake, at its back, is a waterfall.

White, foamy water cascades down a rocky, jagged cliff face, pouring into the lake below and sending billows of mist rolling across the surface. Mounds of green moss drape up the cliff's face, the scene picturesque, like it should be on the cover of a National Geographic, and for a brief, wonderful moment, I forget I am on an alien planet.

"Wow," breathes Dr. Banner.

Without waiting to ask Bucky, I send Droney off to test the water. I'm willing to bet with the waterfall churning up the lake that the water will be okay to drink. God, I hope so. I'm so thirsty.

Droney's report comes back with the all clear, and I practically lunge through the reeds, wading up to my knees into the blessedly cool water and tearing off my mask.

Gracefully, elegantly, I lean over and dunk my head completely into the water. I nearly moan at the wonderfully cool temperature, staying under as long as I can before jerking upright, shaking my head out like a dog, my hair plastered to my head.

Dr. Banner is just now making it through the reeds, crouching at the water's edge to cup it in his hands, splashing his face with a bit more decorum than I had and taking long drinks.

Bucky is gripping my upper arm, face grim as he draws me back to the shore. "Do not disturb the water," he says in a low voice. "We don't know what kind of creatures lurk there."

Huh. Maybe Bucky is Aragorn.

Once our thirst is finally sated, we crouch among the reeds for cover, keeping our voices quiet as we deliberate the next course of action.

"We should head straight up the cliff. Going around it to find an easier way up will take too long," Bucky says immediately.

"Veto," Dr. Banner shakes his head. "You guys may be able to scale that thing, but I certainly can't."

"Won't it leave us too exposed?" I ask, glancing back at the rocky cliff, rising up even higher than the canopy. "I mean, you might be somewhat camouflaged, Bucky, but I am basically in red and blue spandex. Might as well ring the dinner bell."

Bucky's eyes aren't on us anymore, they are on the perimeter of the lake, scanning the trees and the dense bushes beneath them, any of which could easily be concealing an alien hunter. "I have a feeling."

I go rigid at that, eyes widening. "A feeling?"

He nods. "Could be nothing. But I'd feel better if we reached the top of that cliff as soon as possible."

I am the one with the spider senses, and I trust it wholeheartedly to warn me of danger. I know I probably seem crazy whenever I get a bad feeling or let others know that hey, I got a chill, so something's bad is coming but can't tell you what. And Bucky? He might not have those senses, but he is a super soldier, and he does have a crazy amount of life experience. I'm inclined to trust in his feelings as much as my own.

"Okay," I reply. "Let's do it."

"Woah, hey," Dr. Banner waves his arms in a crisscrossing motion in front of him. "Did we not hear the part where I can't do this? I'm not a climber. The other guy could probably do that cliff in a single leap, but I don't think we want to risk that."

"I could web you up," I offer. "Bucky and I can pull you straight up the cliff."

"How much of that webbing do you have left?" Bucky's eyes narrow on me.

"Uhhh," I look down at my wrists. "Forty eight percent."

Bucky's frown deepens. "Don't waste it on Banner."

"Hey," Dr. Banner looks thoroughly insulted.

"He'll need it for the next fight," Bucky answers firmly. "I'll take the lead, test out and pick the safest route. Banner, you're behind me. Peter, you take the rear. Be ready to catch Bruce if he falls."

"Got it," I salute, casting a sympathetic glance to Dr. Banner, who paled considerably at Bucky's implication.

"We'll stay close to the waterfall," the Winter Soldier's eyes study the cliff. "It'll be slicker, but the mist and sound should provide us with some cover."

"I'm so dead," I hear him mutter.

* * *

"Are you sure you don't want me to carry you the rest of the way?" I shout up at Dr. Banner. The roar of the waterfall is so loud, I don't worry about being heard by any alien hunters. "I'm a lot stronger than I look! I'll just put you on my back!"

Several feet above me, Dr. Banner clings to a thin, rocky ledge, and I can see his muscles trembling from down here, can see the misery crumpling his face. "No."

I pause. "No, you're not sure? Or no to the piggy back ride?"

"I'm pretty sure my dignity will last me at least another fifteen feet," he yells back down to me. Reaching up with his right arm, his left foot slides on the slick rock, and his whole body goes rigid as he jerks and clings tightly to the cliff. "Or less."

I look up past him at Bucky, who is nearly to the top. The Winter Soldier casts a glance down at me, shaking his head slightly as he smirks, and a grin unfurls across my face beneath my mask.

Poor Dr. Banner.

I stick easily to the cliff face, my fingers and the toes of my boots finding purchase in the smallest of crevices. The pace is slow for Dr. Banner, which makes it almost leisurely for me.

Or it would be if I wasn't so worried about being shot down by an alien.

We're incredibly high up, so high that we've crested the jungle canopy, and if I half turn to glance behind me, I can see an ocean of green sprawling over hills and valleys.

I can hear the strain lining the groans of Dr. Banner as he hauls himself up to the next set of handholds that Bucky points out for him, and I really wish he would just let me give him a ride the rest of the way up.

The view is insane and all, but the longer we stay on this cliff, the more I feel exposed.

Bucky's reached the top, and I watch as he hauls himself over the edge, crouching on all fours to watch our ascent, his sharp gaze on Dr. Banner as he reaches up to grab another ledge.

"Not that one!" Bucky calls down. "To your right."

Dr. Banner is mumbling something through clenched teeth as he obeys, and even with my enhanced hearing, I can't make out the words. It's pretty obvious that whatever he just said, he insulted Bucky.

I am grinning again beneath my mask, when an icy shudder rips through me, my spider senses going off without warning.

Eyes and lenses widening, I let go of the cliff with my left hand, shifting all my weight to my right as I swing to the side so my back faces the rock wall just as a black, jagged knife embeds itself into the stone where I just was.

Beneath me, emerging from the waterfall in a terrifyingly epic manner, is an alien hunter.

"Shit!"

I glance up at Bucky's widening eyes, at Dr. Banner's still struggling form. "Climb! Climb faster!"

"I'm working on it!" he yells back grumpily, unaware of the threat. "Don't rush me!"

"Rushing! I am most definitely rushing you!"

The alien is climbing fast, its black and red eyes fastened on us as it scales the cliff in an almost spider-like fashion. I press back further, the sharp rocks digging into my back as a spear whizzes past me.

Except, it's shooting down, not up.

Bucky is on his feet, the second spear gripped in his hands, ready to throw another as he roars, "Move!"

Wasting no time, I scramble up the cliff, barely even looking for solid hand or foot holds, relying solely on my ability to stick to pretty much any surface.

Within seconds, I am at Dr. Banner's side, and he scowls at me, then seems to notice Bucky throwing down his second spear. His eyes follow the trajectory, and when he sees the alien hunter dodging the weapon, Dr. Banner's eyes grow huge.

"Oh my god!"

"I'm really sorry about this," I tell him before seizing the back of his shirt. Gripping a handful of the sweat soaked material, I tense my arm and back before I hurl him straight up into the air with a grunt of effort.

Dr. Banner yells, arms pinwheeling as he soars upwards, his shoulders barely passing the edge of the top of the cliff before he starts to plummet, and then Bucky is seizing him with his metal arm, gripping his forearm and bending his knees to absorb the scientist's sudden weight.

"Yes!" I cheer, scrambling up after him.

But I don't move fast enough.

The alien hunter beneath me leaps up, and suddenly its weight is pinning me to the cliff, expelling the breath from my lungs.

My spider-senses go off like fireworks in my skull, and my left arm shoots out to grip the alien's wrist as it plunges a knife towards my exposed side. My arm is shaking with the strain of holding the blow back as the alien's other arm reaches forward to wrap around my throat.

I grunt, my right hand going up automatically to pry it away.

Except now there's no one holding onto the cliff.

And then we're falling.

"PETER!" I hear Dr. Banner shout as the alien hunter and I plummet through the air, my stomach lurching violently at the terrifying freefall.

The alien's grip on me doesn't loosen, as if it doesn't care if we are falling to our deaths, as if it only cares about killing me first, even as I struggle to free myself. Its body jolts behind mine as it breaks through the canopy first, taking the brunt of the snapping branches and leaves, and somehow through it all, it is still trying to stab me.

Seconds of freefall, and then we hit the water with a loud SLAP.

I inhale sharply through my mask just before the water closes over my face, the heavy current from the waterfall forcing our bodies down, down, down beneath the surface. I buck and kick within the alien's hold to no avail, my lungs already burning, straining for air. My grip on the arm wielding the knife loosens, and it plunges straight for my ribs-

But it never makes impact.

I can't make sense of anything beneath the water, can't tell up from down, and everything has condensed to murky shadows, bursts of light, thrashing limbs and bubbles and pressure closing off my windpipe, the current or the alien tossing my body around violently in all directions and I can't _breathe-_

I'm free, a hand gripping my shoulder and yanking me forward through the water, shoving me hard. My body surges up, and suddenly I break through the surface, inhaling a mouthful of sopping wet mask.

Choking, sputtering, I reach up and yank it off of my head, gasping for air as I tread water. My eyes are wide as I glance all around me, my heart hammering painfully in my chest as I search for the hunter.

Where is it-where is it?!

A dark shape surges up from beneath the water, and I yell out, flailing in the water as I kick away from it.

Bucky's head emerges with a sharp gasp.

"Bucky!" I choke out, my voice hoarse. "Are-are you ok?! Is it-did-where-?!"

"It's dead," he pants. "Are you hurt?"

Shaken, still in shock that I'd just been yanked off a cliff by an alien and nearly stabbed to death and drowned, I glance down at what I can see of my body through the water. "No. No, I-I think I'm fine."

I look across at him, realizing suddenly that he must have just swan dived off the cliff after us. " _Dude-_ "

There's red in the water.

My insides constrict as I remember that the alien's blood is black, not red, and I am looking at Bucky with wide eyes. "Are you-are you bleeding?"

The muscles in his face are tense, not with worry, not anymore, but with pain. "I'm fine," he grits out.

But I stay near him as we swim to shore, and I can't help but eye the thin trail of red wavering in the water behind him. My heart is now thundering beneath my ribs, and when we reach the shore, Bucky tries to stand, then sinks to the mossy ground on one knee, clutching at his side with a grimace.

"Oh god," I rush over to him, panic making it even harder to breathe. "Oh god, you're really hurt."

"It's not that bad. Calm down."

"Calm down?!" I nearly screech. "You're bleeding all over the jungle!"

Bucky gives me a sharp look, chastising my volume, but I couldn't care less right now. I am freaking out because he's bleeding and it's bad and he might be dying and he jumped off a cliff to save me and-

"Let me see it," I demand, reaching forward to pry his hands from the wound.

"Kid, it's fine-"

I jerk his hands away, and he grunts in pain as my eyes widen at the large gash going from the bottom of his ribs almost to his hips, gushing blood. "Holy shit, that's a lot of blood," I swallow, my limbs shaking. "Here, let me-"

I raise a trembling hand, aiming my web shooter and pressing down on the trigger, releasing a short burst of webbing that closes itself over the wound with a sicking thwack of sound. Bucky hisses through clenched teeth, nearly pitching over before I grip him by his shoulder.

"Sorry," I say, wincing. "The webs should stop the bleeding at least, keep the wound closed."

"Good thinking," he pants.

Don't freak out, don't freak out, don't freak out.

I give him a minute to breathe through the pain, give myself a minute to try and stave off the persistent panic.

"Hellooo?!" I hear Dr. Banner's distant yell, clearly just as panicked as I am, but not bothering to hide it. "Someone talk to me! Are you guys ok?!"

I consider shouting back up at him, then decide we've already caused too much of a commotion. So I move to Bucky's uninjured side, pulling his arm across my shoulder and sliding my own around his torso, careful not to press against his wound.

Then I take careful aim through the broken hole in the jungle canopy that we fell through and fire off a web. The line shoots straight up to grip the top edge of the cliff, going taught as it begins to retract.

I tighten my grip on Bucky as we shoot up through the air, his muscles tensing in pain. But he doesn't protest the use of my web.

That scares me more than anything. That means he knows he is too injured to climb, that it's worth the spending of my very limited supply. That means that his injury is _that_ bad.

We reach the top, and Dr. Banner and I push/pull Bucky onto the wide, rocky ledge atop the cliff, the Winter Soldier collapsing onto his back the moment we move away from the edge. At my terrified look, he assures me, "Just need a minute. I'm okay."

Dr. Banner is kneeling beside him, examining the webbing covering Bucky's side, the edges of it stained with blood. "Jesus, what happened?!"

"Bucky got stabbed," I blurt before Bucky can say anything. "I webbed him up to stop the bleeding."

Dr. Banner curses under his breath, reaching for the makeshift bandages, but Bucky's hand grabs his wrist, halting his movement.

"Leave it," Bucky orders, his breath finally evening out. "We need to move, find shelter. Then you can check it out."

The scientist looks ready to argue, but Bucky's expression is firm, unrelenting. "Unless you want to get caught out in the open by more hunters?"

Dr. Banner lets out an exasperated breath, running his hand over his face. "Fine."

I can't stop staring at the webbing covering his stab wound, at the glistening, white threads crisscrossing in a tightly wound mesh, at the bright red blood seeping through the corners.

He'd saved me.

The Winter Soldier had jumped off a cliff and gotten himself stabbed to save me.

I already owe him a lifetime of debts, but this? This takes them all.

And if...if he dies on this planet...if he dies from this injury or from not being able to fight back hard enough or run fast enough…

It will be because of me.

* * *

 **Wanda Maximoff**

 _Vision_.

A violent jolt goes through me, as if the entire world all around is shooting past my body in streams of stretching color while I stand frozen in a moment in time. My ears are ringing, my heart halting its rapid beat as I watch, horrified, as Vision sinks to his knees, his face slack with shock.

A hole in his chest.

My hand prickles with the phantom memory of using my power to rip straight through the vibranium plates and wires that made up Ultron's chest to pull out the power source that served as his heart. I can still feel exactly what it felt like to create a hole like that, a wound that deep, that fatal.

I can still feel exactly what it felt like to have my own heart cleaved from my chest as I felt Pietro die, as I felt that bond pulling us together snap, vanishing like it was never there, leaving a dark abyss that could never be filled.

No. _No_ , not again.

Not like this.

And like before, I feel my power, so thoroughly entwined with my emotions, surge up in a rampant, tempestuous wave, sucking in towards my body with my ragged inhale and shooting out from me as I breathe out.

It billows in a raging deluge straight for the alien hunter hiding in the trees, cresting high before devouring it in crimson light.

My eyes squeeze shut, my face crumpling, torn between impossible rage and blind terror that makes me lose my grip on everything.

Pietro, going where I cannot follow. The wind whipping my hair back as he breezes by me one last time.

The light in Ultron's eyes blinking out as I tear out his monstrous heart.

My body in freefall with the rest of Sokovia as I prepare to let myself die, to meet my brother in whatever awaited us in the next life.

Vision sweeping in out of nowhere, taking me into his arms, looking into my very soul with those impossible eyes of his. Vision following me to the ends of the earth, holding me through my nightmares, walking with me in the sun. Vision brushing back my hair, his face full of wonder and shyness as he kisses me.

Vision. _Vision_.

I feel the alien hunter die as my psionic power ruptures, obliterating it into nothingness.

With the release of my power, I snap back to myself, feeling lightheaded and weighed down all at once. Steve is crouched down, his arm across Vision's chest, preventing him from falling all the way forward.

" _Vis_ ," I breathe, sinking to the ground beside them, my hands going to his arms as Steve and I carefully lay him back onto the green foliage covering the ground. "No, no, _no_."

I'm shaking. I can't stop shaking.

Vision's breathing is ragged, shallow, his eyes on my face, his mouth slack. I place both palms firmly on the sides of his face.

"You stay with me," I say fiercely, my voice almost a growl. "Vision, do you hear me? Stay."

Slowly, jerkily, he nods.

I tear my gaze from his face to look at his wound, and my heartbeat finds its rapid pace again, hammering fiercely inside me as if it could beat for both of us.

Oh god.

The wound is larger than my hand, the edges of it glimmering faintly. Thin threads of orange light stretch across the hole like burning wires holding him together, a strange combination of circuitry and muscles visible within.

"Can you fix it?" Steve asks urgently. "Wanda? Can you heal him?"

"I-I don't-" Panic cinches off my throat. I don't know how. I've never used my powers to heal, not like this.

My trembling hand moves from his face to hover over his wound, and even though there's no time for it, I hesitate, my eyes growing wet.

I don't know what to do.

Warm fingers curl around my hand that's still touching his cheek, and I look over at Vision's face, my heart nearly shattering at the unbridled trust shining in his eyes. He squeezes my fingers.

"It...will be...alright," he rasps, wholly calm.

I can't let him die.

I won't.

Gritting my teeth, tears rolling down my cheeks, I turn to the wound, splaying my fingers above it. Power weaves around my hand, casting his body in a crimson glow as rivulets of psionic energy curl towards him. I let my fingers twist and bend as they will, guiding my power to the edges of his wound.

Heal, I urge it. Knit him back together. Fix him.

Let him live.

Time passes in an aching crawl, and at first nothing seems to happen. Then, almost imperceptibly, I can see my power drawing out more of those glowing, orange threads, coaxing them gently across the hole in his chest to connect to the other side, pulling the flesh together.

I don't dare to breathe, don't dare to hope.

My whole body is shaking as I concentrate all of myself to healing him, to closing the wound.

Minutes pass, and though the wound is growing a little smaller, it isn't healing completely. I let out an angry sob of frustration. "It's not _working_."

"We have to get out of here," Steve's voice is tense, anxious. "More hunters will come. Is he healed enough to be out of the woods? Once we get a safe distance away, you can try again."

I don't know. I don't-

Vision squeezes my hand. "You've...done enough."

It's not. It's not enough.

"I need help," I pant, turning my tear streaked face to Steve. "I need Stark or...or Banner. I need them to guide me through the rest. I can't-"

Steve nods, putting a hand on my shoulder. "It's ok. You did good. Let's get him up and out of here, and when we're safe, we'll find Banner."

His voice is so sure, his grip comforting, confident.

"You need to...rest," Vision adds. "Your power…"

"I'm fine," I insist, my brows knitting together with worry. "Can you stand?"

Vision nods and goes to brace his hands on the ground. He lets out a choked, rasping sound of pain, and Steve and I go to either side of him, allowing him to lean heavily on us as we slowly get to our feet.

His arms hook around our shoulders, Steve on his left, me on his right, and I place a steadying hand on his chest as his knees buckle.

"If I had...the energy," Vision breathes heavily. "I would alter my density...make myself lighter...not so much...a burden."

"You are not a burden," I answer fiercely. "Now hush."

His arm pins my ponytail to my sweat drenched shoulders, his weight making me stagger as Steve and I slowly begin leading Vision out of the clearing. I can tell Steve is bearing most of Vision's weight, and I let him, knowing how much stronger he is than me.

Vision is alive. He's alive, and even though he's still heavily wounded, there is a chance to save him. He can still make it.

Knowing that doesn't stop the repeated image of him staggering forward, the gaping wound sparking in his chest as his lips part in shock.

Stay, my raging heart pounds. Don't leave me.

 _Stay_.

* * *

 **A/N: Ahhh things are not looking too good for our heroes. But let's face it, when trapped on an alien planet outnumbered by advanced alien hunters, things are probably going to get worse before they get better...IF they get better. Mwuhahaha.**

 **Anyone see Ned's POV coming? XD Had a lot of fun writing that little snippet! Always a fun challenge to write from a new POV, and figured we could use a quick break to check back in on Earth**

 **Special thanks as always to my beta PippinStrange, who continues to be an incredible source of inspiration and support, and who has so many incredible fics of her own that I devour every chance I get! Go check out her post Infinity War fic "Where They Go" if you need to recover from that business, or the fic that started me writing for the MCU, "Down Came the Rain". If you need a laugh, go read her Deadpool meets Spiderman fic because it is a riot and damn does she nail Deadpool.**

 **THank you SO SO SO much to my lovely review squad. You guys truly are amazing.**

* * *

sparklydog9: Of course! I love all the reviews I get! :D

EleanorGardner: *Peeks from behind cover* lol. Thank you! Well...he's not dead yet! That's something, right? lol

Shadow-Wolf78: Thanks!

cargumentluv: :D

StarStepper: No hate! Only love! I'm just a messed up writer with some serious issues. XD I feel the same! Big bro Bucky, which I didn't even plan on being in this series, it just happened, is as wonderful to me as dad Tony. And OMG thank you! Wanda is so amazing, I could write an entire book in her perspective. Hope you liked her section in this chapter as well!

Kairianna864: Ahhhh thank you! I definitely binge watch Marvel movies every chance I get, and the rest is just...practice I guess? Not sure! lol! But I'm glad you're enjoying!

AppleSpongeCake: Yeesh. Well, he's not dead...yet

JeyFeather1234: A Stan Lee cameo would be the best. XD Never thought of that, but I should try and work it in somewhere. And Instant Kill Mode Bucky is the best. lol

EmilyF.6: Thank you very much!

bgib99: Wow, thanks! I totally thought the same thing about him in Ultron! Then the trailer for Infinity War came out and I'm like, noooope. He's a goner. lol

Seawell: :D Well, at least he isn't dead? lol!

LoonyLovegood1981: THanks so much! I loved the Clint and Tony dynamic in SIlent Night, so I just had to include something in here too. And as to the cliffhanger, I can't help myself. I have a problem. lol

Guest: Thank you so much! I try to keep the characters canon to the MCU, and to what has happened in my own Paint it Black verse, so Steve definitely is lest idealistic than he was in the first Avengers movie. I'm glad you are enjoying! Splitting up the character groups has been really fun to play with and see how they might interact. I've been loving writing it as well. :D

Web-HeadSuperFan: Glad you enjoyed the chapter. I wasn't super attached to Vision until I saw his relationship with Wanda in Civil War and Infinity War, and I adore Wanda. :)

readingisapriority: LOL YES! Sherlock XD I couldn't resist. and I love babysitter Peter too!

DarylDixon'sLover: Oh yes. ;)

Luckias: Thanks very much! :D

Kirby Lane: Hello new reviewer! Thank you so much and welcome! Your review seriously made my day, like WOW, THANK YOU! I am beyond honored, and everything you listed I work so hard to achieve, so it really means a lot to me. I also never thought to put Bucky and Peter together until a scene for Paint it Black hit me out of the blue, like, you know the one person who might be able to relate to Peter in this? Bucky. And thus the big brother/protector relationship was born and I love it so much. Can't get enough. :)

screechyfangirl: he is an android, yes, and while I don't work at Marvel, nor am I an expert when it comes to Vision, I think that a big enough blast to the chest could take him out. The mind stone is great and all, but if his body is wrecked enough, it won't do him much good. When he was stabbed in Infinity War, it greatly weakened him. But that's just my personal opinion and what I'm going with lol

SummerMistedDragon: :)

Shoyzz: Me too! :D and ummm...he did it again! yay! Right? No, because he got really hurt? Oh,, yeah. lol! :D

GinaBoo: Thank you! I love big brother Bucky too! And Peter babysitting was something I just had to include. So glad you are still enjoying! THanks so much!

gammathetaalpha: Eeeee thank you so much! Great to see your name again! Glad you like it so far!

twylght: Thanks! :)

Heroes21: Lol! I will endeavor to be nicer to the characters from now on...but I make no promises. XD AND OMG I KNOW. Rereading Silent Night I was like WHOA, that is some seriously painful foreshadowing that I had no idea Marvel would be cruel enough to ACTUALLY do. Insane. lol

Shannon: Ahhhh welcome aboard! and bless you for binging! And omg thank you so so much! Wow! I definitely have a few more stories planned after this one. :)

kittymyth96: Thank you! :)

gandalf537: Right? I should get PippinStrange to do a dramatic reading of the whole thing when it's done. ;) and OMG your review! Seriously put the biggest grin on my face! I love hearing those kind of reactions, and all your thoughts about the different parts of the chapter! That was wonderful!

Chocolate369: First off, thank you SO much for taking the time to leave me such a long and wonderful review. Wow. And welcome! Seriously, thank you so so so so so much for all your amazing words. I work hard to keep the characters in character and to create the connections and relationships I've always wanted to see while building onto the ones that already exist. I also adore big brother Bucky to Peter, and having all the Avengers finally on the same side again. Civil War was sooo painful even though it was so good too. Thank you very much for all your "rambling", because it was a delight to read, and I am so glad you are enjoying this story and hope you continue to do so!

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 **Keep leaving reviews like that guys, and I promise I will NEVER stop writing the CMFU. XD Seriously, you guys are incredible, and so many of your reviews made me feel incredible.**

 **-Sincerely, the Queen of Cliffhangers ;)**

 **COMING UP**

 **Chapter Ten: Help Me Make it Through the Night**

 **Tony's team reaches the depths of space to encounter a shock of their own, and Peter, Bucky, and Bruce find shelter to address Bucky's wound...which is only getting worse.**


	10. Help Me Make it Through the Night

**Chapter Ten: Help Me Make it Through the Night**

* * *

...

...

 **Natasha Romanov**

"Deploying reflector panels. Shutting down main thrusters to enter stealth mode," Okoye announces, her voice soft as we exit the multicolored array of our jump and glide effortlessly into depthless, dark space.

The lights in the cabin dim, and though I can't see the outside of the ship, I know that the panels lining the perimeter have shifted to mirror the space around us, absorbing the light from the stars to become nearly invisible.

At least, that is our hope.

The alien force is more technologically advanced, perhaps even above Wakandan tech, though the young princess would certainly have a thing or two to say about that. For all we know, no amount of stealth mode will hide us from their radar, and no amount of reflector panels will make us disappear from view.

All we can do is hope, and wait.

The air within the ship is taut with tension, as if our oxygen has suddenly been cut low, and none of us dare to breathe.

Geared up for war, many of us with Wakandan upgrades courtesy of Shuri, we stare out the cockpit window. Foreign stars litter the inky black blanket of space, their light dim, their positions crammed together in distant galaxies and constellations, as if clustering themselves so closely can help them give off more light.

It feels like we are at the very edge of the universe, and though I've never been to space before this, I can't shake the feeling that it is quieter here in this isolated galaxy than in our own. Quieter. Like the absence of more than just sound. Like nothing here should be living. Like the dark quiet itself emanates a deadly countenance that puts even me on edge.

Before us is a single planet, the side facing us nearly pitch black, the edges of it glowing a wavering light as it eclipses a small, distant sun far beyond it.

And hovering just above the planet's atmosphere, is the alien craft. The craft that entered and exited our own planet like it was nothing more than a ghost. It is eerily accurate to Shuri's holographic diagram back at the compound, a testament to the Wakandan technology and the skill of its Design Group the princess herself leads.

The minutes pass as we hover among the stars like we are nothing more than another piece of cold, unfeeling space, waiting to see if we are about to be discovered, or if our presence is still unknown.

"We remain undetected," Okoye says finally, her voice still a soft murmur, as if just speaking too loudly could call the alien force down upon us.

Several breaths are released, the tension diminishing somewhat, but still lingering around our shoulders like an icy weight.

We are far from out of the woods.

"Is there any way of knowing whether they are on the ship or on the planet?" Rhodes asks, geared up in his War Machine armor, sans helmet.

T'Challa shakes his head. The vibranium weave of his Black Panther Habit seems to absorb any light coming from the hull of the ship, making him look like he belongs to the depthless dark of space.

"Any scans we might perform could alert them to our presence," he mutters. "And there is no way to tell whether they could penetrate the alien craft's defences."

"I say we go penetrate them ourselves," Stark cracks his neck above his red and gold Ironman suit, the light catching on the new veins of silver edging the metal panels running along his body. "See how they like it."

"Okay, not a good enough excuse to use the word penetrate," Sam raises a brow.

I roll my eyes.

"We shouldn't waste time sneaking aboard their ship," Clint muses, his sharp eyes moving across the distant craft to the planet beyond it. "If they're docked there, my bet is they took the others to the surface."

"That's a risky bet," Rhodes shoots back. "If you're wrong, we could be facing an entire civilization of those monsters while they continue to do whatever they are doing to the rest of our team. Not to mention, it's a freaking planet. How do you expect us to search the entire thing for six people?"

"Either way it's risky," I remind him with an arched brow. "Whether we go for the ship or the planet, it's fifty fifty whether or not we find the others."

"We're looking at this wrong," Stark interjects with a shake of his head. "I'm not an 'either or' sort of guy. I'm more interested in the word _both_."

Scott's eyes widen with understanding. "We split up."

We all look to Tony.

"Historically and cinematically speaking," Sam folds his arms over his chest. "Splitting up is always a bad idea. Everyone always gets picked off one by one. And I'm just going to say it, usually the black guy goes first. We're not exactly in short supply here."

"So the odds are in your favor," Stark gives him a quizzical look. "What's the problem?"

"The problem," Rhodes stresses as Sam flips Tony off, "Is that last time we fought these guys on our turf, we got our asses handed to us. And that was with a lot more of our big players on the field. We split up, they wipe us out. Simple as that."

"Look, Romanov is right. Don't quote me on that," Stark points at me without looking. "We go to the ship, they're on the planet, they die. We go to the planet, they're on the ship, they die. And this whole U.S.S. Enterprise venture was for nothing. I don't know about you, but I don't like wasting my time."

There's a moment of silence as we mentally deliberate the possibilities.

"Your highness?" Scott breaks it first. "What's your thought on this?"

T'Challa doesn't answer, but looks to his general instead, raising a brow in her direction as he defers to her. Okoye stands from her position at the helm, turning to face us with an expression of utmost confidence, of command. "We will divide and conquer. One team to investigate the alien craft, the other, the planet. Use these to stay in contact with each other."

My interested gaze shoots to her palm as Stark deadpans, "Please tell me those aren't friendship bracelets."

Okoye shoots him an unimpressed look as she holds out a handful of dark beads, symbols etched onto each one. "Shuri adapted the interface in the Kimoyo beads so their range is vastly extended from its previous limitations."

"This is great and all," Scott nods towards the beads. "But searching a ship is one thing. An entire freaking planet might take awhile."

"We should be able to triangulate possible drop points based on the ships position above the atmosphere," T'Challa answers him.

"Not to mention," I add. "If the others are on the planet's surface, those of us that go on the ship should be able to figure out where."

Clint cracks his neck, adjusting the bow on his back. "Now the only question is who goes to the alien craft, and who heads to the surface of the planet?"

"Sorry, but that's not the only question here," Stark steps forward, gesturing to the alien craft hovering menacingly in the distance. "We can't exactly expect them to leave a hangar open for us or think that they won't have ways to detect us if we try to break into their ship."

"I think I can help with that."

I watch as Okoye and T'Challa stiffen, their eyes widening furiously as we all turn to the back of the ship.

The Wakandan Princess steps out from a hidden compartment within the very walls, her chin raised defiantly, her eyes sparkling. For a moment, we all just stare at her, stunned into silence.

Then T'Challa releases a furious string of Wakandan as he stalks forward, an exasperated looking Okoye at his heels. Abruptly, he switches to English, his voice tight with disbelieving anger. "You snuck aboard my ship?"

"No, I went obediently back home to the palace to await your return," Shuri rolls her eyes and puts her hands on her hips. "What do you think, brother?"

"What were _you_ thinking?" Okoye demands. "The entire royal line is now in the far reaches of space, leaving none but your poor mother to watch over Wakanda."

Shuri looks utterly unremorseful. "Nakia has everything under control there."

T'Challa eyes her suspiciously. "Did she put you up to this?"

"Nakia did not put me up to anything. I may have sent her a message to inform her about the situation, and she may have encouraged me to do as I felt I must," Shuri's arms move to cross her chest. "And I knew you needed me more than Wakanda did. _And_ I was right."

Near me, I hear Stark murmur in a delighted voice to Sam, "I want one."

Sam rolls his eyes.

T'Challa is going off in Wakandan again, and Shuri finally snaps, "Look, I'm here! There is nothing to be done for it now. You can't send me home without returning yourself. So, if you are finished ranting at me, let me get a look at that ship so I can help you get on board."

The king looks like he's nearly tempted to fly straight back to Earth just so he can deposit the princess back home, but then he relents, letting out a sigh before pointing at her. "You will obey my orders from here on out. No more sneaking."

Shuri grins innocently as she nods. No one believes it for a second. She cracks her knuckles, gives us all a satisfied look before strolling up to the controls. As she passes Stark, she pauses, smirking at the sight of her upgrades adorning his suit. Shuri raises a brow, waiting for his response.

Tony raises his chin, giving her a conceding smile as he asks, "So, how do you like your coffee, kid?"

* * *

 **Peter Parker**

My fault, my fault, my fault.

The words churn heavily in my gut, sinking further and further with every rapid beat of my heart.

It's not logical. I know it's not.

It's not like I asked the alien to drag me off the cliff and try to kill me. It's not like I asked Bucky to jump down after us or to get injured saving my ass.

But if he hadn't, he wouldn't be injured.

 _Yeah_ , another voice in my head says, _and you would be dead_.

My eyes move to the Winter Soldier limping heavily at the head of our group, stubbornly refusing any help as we move further up the mountain. Dr. Banner and I exchange worried, exasperated looks as we walk side by side just behind him, staying close so we can grab him if he starts to fall.

Because he's definitely going to.

Bucky started this trek after the cliffside fiasco striding confidently into the jungle, barely favoring his left side as if to prove to us that he was fine enough to continue on. Now, he's limping so badly, he nearly looks like a staggering drunk, and I'm willing to bet he's lost way too much blood.

When I'm not carefully watching my injured teammate, my eyes are frantically scanning the jungle for any sign of something we can use as shelter. We follow the river that pours itself into the waterfall over the cliff and into the lake, travelling up its winding curves, using the noise of the rushing water to disguise our footsteps.

It had been Bucky's idea.

I vow that whenever I get home, I am going to binge watch all of Bear Gryll's shows to learn more about surviving in the wildest places of the world, so that next time I'm in a similar scenario, (please god let there not be a next time), I will know more than just to drink your own pee if you are dying of thirst and can't find water.

That's a thing, isn't it?

I'm pretty sure Ned told me that once. But maybe he was just messing with me.

"He can't keep this up," Dr. Banner murmurs to me under his breath. "We gotta find somewhere to stop so I can look at his wound."

I nod, chewing on the inside of my cheek worryingly, my eyes scanning the trees and the river and seeing nothing but plants and rocks and useless water and-

I jerk to a halt, my lenses narrowing on a spot on the other side of the river, up a rocky, mossy slope. A decaying, fallen log crosses over the high point of the river, sharp branches sticking out haphazardly, draped in greenery, and behind that, above that, there's a crevice in the massive boulders.

It could be nothing.

Or it could be exactly what we are looking for.

I'm about to open my mouth to call out to Bucky to let him know that I thought I found something, when he trips and stumbles, falling hard to his knees.

Dr. Banner and I surge to his side, and with a sinking sensation, I see that he's even worse off than we thought. His skin is seriously way too white, making the stubble on his jaw stand out in stark contrast, everything covered in a sheen of sweat that has his hair plastered to his face. Even his eyes are glassy, unfocused.

"He's lost too much blood," Dr. Banner places a hand on Bucky's forehead, and the soldier doesn't protest. The scientist curses, dropping his arm back to his side. "He's burning up."

I heave one of Bucky's arms over my shoulder, pulling him carefully to his feet. "There's a cave up there," I point with my free hand. "I think. Hang tight, doc. I'm gonna get him up there, and then I'll come back for you."

"No," Bucky grunts. "Him first."

"If you can say that without slurring, I'll let the kid take me first," Dr. Banner raises an eyebrow expectantly.

Bucky just blinks at him.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Go ahead, Pete."

I fire off a web at the top of the boulder strewn ledge across the river, tightening my grip on Bucky as we swing across the wide body of water and up the slope. Bucky lets out a sharp exhale of breath as we land, the only sound of pain he makes.

"Sorry," I murmur as I leave him to lean against the boulder.

I gotta check to make sure the coast is clear, that there are no alien animals using this as a den, that it's big enough to stash us all in, that there are no traps.

It's a narrow opening, barely visible in the rocks unless you see it at just the right angle, looking more like a shadow than the mouth of a cave. Switching my lenses to night vision, I sidle into the crevice sideways, the opening probably just wide enough for Bucky to slide through after me.

After a few claustrophobic seconds of scraping my back against the damp rock wall, my head angled to the side to see deeper into what I hope is a wider cave beyond it, I finally step through.

My body shifts into a defensive crouch as I examine the space, tinted green and fuzzy by my lenses. It isn't pitch black in here, the narrow slit of the cave's opening offering a shallow beam of light, but I'm not taking any chances, using my suit's capabilities to check out every corner.

The cave is probably as big as my room back in Queens, the ceiling angled sharply as the boulders press against each other. My nose wrinkles at the musty, damp smell hanging heavily in the air, but honestly, this is the best shelter we could have asked for.

Just in case, I roam my hands over the walls, and make sure to step across every inch of the ground to check for traps, but there's nothing.

I sidle back out of the cave, my alarm flaring at the sight of Bucky weakly leaning against the boulder, his eyes slowly dragging across the landscape to look up at me. "Come on," I say, helping him up. "Let's get you inside."

* * *

Dr. Banner is prying the webbing off of Bucky's wound.

The Winter Soldier is propped against the wall centered in the beam of light from the cave's entrance, holding his body stiffly as the scientist carefully lifts the stained edges of the makeshift bandage to reveal the bloody gash beneath it.

My stomach rebels at the sight, prickles of phantom pain skittering across my skin.

Holy shit that's a lot of blood. Fresh, crimson blood, dark, drying patches of it across his exposed skin, the torn edges of his uniform. And the wound…

I have to squeeze my eyelids shut as I swallow repeatedly to keep the bile from surging up my throat. But even with my eyes closed I can hear the soft rip of the webbing tugging away from his skin, the sharp hisses of breath coming through Bucky's clenched teeth, Dr. Banner's murmured apologies.

And beneath it all, the words repeating in a guilty mantra in my head: my fault, my fault, my fault.

It could have been me.

It was supposed to have been me.

"Geez, that bastard really did a number on you, didn't he?" Dr. Banner asks sympathetically, pulling the rest of the webbing off, his other hand braced on Bucky's skin to keep him steady.

"I've...had worse," Bucky admits.

I wince, wishing he was kidding. I move closer, determined to push aside my growing nausea and my almost crippling worry so that I can help in whatever way I can.

It helps if I don't look directly at the wound.

Dr. Banner blows out a breath. "Well, I'm not going to lie to you, it's not good. And I don't exactly have any medical supplies, but we'll make do. It'll be one hell of a scar though."

Bucky looks pointedly at his metal arm.

"Right," Dr. Banner smirks, rubbing his jaw as his gaze returns to the open gash still leaking blood, his lips curving down into a deep frown. "We need to clean this. Think you could get me some water, kid?"

I jump to my feet so fast, grey spots erupt across my vision in a woozy headrush. "On it!"

As I hurry out of the cave, Dr. Banner calls after me, "Use that drone of yours to make sure it's clean! Try to find a spot with the fastest current."

"Stay low," Bucky adds. "Watch for signs of-"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," I interrupt, waving him off, as I rush out of the cave, sliding down the steep slope to the water's edge.

Heart thumping, I set Droney to work, my eyes searching the trees for any signs of the hunters.

I don't think I've relaxed for a moment since being captured. Unless you counted being unconscious. Even the short bits of sleep I've managed have been light, restless, buried under humid heat and instinctual terror that has me jerking awake at every sound.

It's starting to weigh on me, the near constant stream of adrenaline pumping through my veins. Not enough rest, not enough food, and the continual fearing for my life. Not the best combo.

When Droney returns, notifying me that the water is free of parasites and other contaminants, I realize suddenly I have nothing to carry the water in.

Sighing, I search around me for something to use, eventually coming across a plant with leaves as big as my torso. Not the best, but good enough. I yank it from it's stalky stem, then jog back to the river, setting the leaf into the current and swiping it through the water to clean it off best I can before scooping it up.

I'd like to say that I carried that water back up to the cave in an epically graceful maneuver, barely spilling a drop. But the truth is, carrying any large amount of liquid in a freaking leaf is nearly impossible.

Third try, I manage to get most of it back into the cave, and by the time I do, I am panting, my heart beating painfully fast in my chest. "I'm sorry," I blurt as I come in, carrying the wide, precarious bundle. "Sorry, that was-"

My words trail off at the sight of Bucky, who hasn't even looked up at my approach. Oh god, he looks really, really bad.

Dr. Banner gestures me over, still kneeling beside him. "Ok, Pete, I need you to carefully pour it over his wound, ok? Not too fast."

Swallowing thickly, I nod, slowly moving to the Winter Soldier's side. I cast a nervous, wide eyed glance at Dr. Banner, who nods reassuringly before I carefully tip the edge of the massive leaf forward. The water steadily pours out in a narrow rush over Bucky's side, and he goes rigid, hissing in pain, his fingers curling into fists as he holds himself still.

My hands are shaking, and the rest of the water dumps out in a spasmic rush. "Sorry!" I exclaim, about to drop the leaf before Dr. Banner takes it from my hands, tearing off a chunk of it and then gently pressing it against the edges of the gash, wiping away the blood so he can see.

I can see the tightness in Bucky's jaw, knowing his teeth are grinding together at the pain, but he doesn't cry out or complain, doesn't jerk away.

He's a soldier, bearing the pain like it's somehow his duty.

The thought makes me sick.

Dr. Banner frowns at it, then looks back at me. "Any chance I can borrow some of that webbing of yours?"

"You want me to shoot another burst for bandages?" I ask, holding up my wrist.

He shakes his head. "How narrow of a line can you make?"

"Uh...not sure," I admit. "I can probably adjust it manually though to reduce the circumference. Why?"

"He need stitches. And the aliens didn't exactly provide me with needle and thread. We're gonna have to use your web to seal the wound shut, intersect and weave the line across the gash. What's its dissolve time?"

"Two hours."

"Ok," Dr. Banner nods. "Ok, that works. We can clean it again when the web dissipates. This is gonna work."

My heart lifts at his words, but Bucky rasps, "No."

"No?" Dr. Banner repeats in confusion. "I'm sorry, did you have a better idea?"

"You have a limited supply," Bucky says evenly, looking at me. "You've already wasted too much."

"Do you see anything else we can use?" my voice rises skeptically. "Dude, you saved my life. The least I can do is give you a little of my webs so that you don't bleed out and die."

I reach for my right wrist, turning my arm over to look at the underside of my web shooter, to the spot just above where I replace my web fluid capsules. If Karen were here, I could just ask her to change the setting, but as it is, I'll have to do it manually. I adjust a toggle several times, letting out the tiniest test of webbing before nodding to Dr. Banner.

Eyes narrowed with focus, he carefully takes my wrist to aim the edge of my web shooter's firing mechanism at the top of Bucky's wound. "Alright, as gentle as you can," he murmurs.

Holding my breath, thankful Dr. Banner's hands are keeping mine steady, I press against the trigger on my palm. A cord of it, significantly thinner than the ropes I use to swing around on, shoots out, the ends of it splaying delicately to latch onto the skin near the wound. Bucky jerks at the impact, but says nothing, and now there is a long thread of webbing connecting from his side to my wrist.

Dr. Banner reaches forward, his face tight with concentration as he pinches the webbing beneath his fingers and stretches it across the open gash, tightening the torn skin as he secures about a sixteenth of the webbing to the other side, pressing it down with his thumb.

Sweat beads across Bucky's forehead, dripping down the sides of his face as Dr. Banner carefully, efficiently, strings the cord in a crisscrossing motion across the gash, lashing the ragged, bloody edges together as tight as he can make it, and beneath his expert fingers and my webbing, now stained red with blood, the wound begins to seal.

I watch in morbid fascination, my stomach roiling, but unable to look away as the scientist works on his patient.

Bucky bears it all, his eyes eventually closing, his breathing evening out in forced, practiced rhythm. Breathing through the pain.

My fault, my fault, my fault.

"There," Dr. Banner says after an excruciatingly long time, and I snap off the end of the webbing dangling from my web shooter. He sits back with a long sigh, his face lined with exhaustion, with concern. "That should hold it for a time, hopefully long enough for his accelerated healing to kick in."

"You ok?" I ask Bucky tentatively, and the Winter Soldier opens his eyes. When they meet mine, they soften, their normal intensity dulled by exhaustion and pain.

"Yeah, kid. I'm good."

He doesn't look good. In fact, he looks the opposite of good, and despite the wound being closed, despite Dr. Banner doing everything he could, a knot of worry burns inside my chest.

I watch as his eyes drift shut again, as his breathing evens out, this time not in forced rhythms, but in sleep as he succumbs to his exhaustion and loss of blood.

"We should cover that," Dr. Banner rubs at his eyes. "To help prevent infection. But he has an open wound in the middle of a freaking alien jungle. The odds of it not getting infected are not good."

He meets my wide eyed lensed stare and amends, "I mean, the accelerated healing should help prevent that, but it would be better if we could cover it up with something sanitary."

I tear off my mask, letting it fall to the ground as I take a few deep breaths. I try not to let Dr. Banner see how badly I am shaking, how much I want to vomit and pass out after witnessing that, after being the cause of it.

I feel wrung out, jittery and strung tight and maybe on the edge of a panic attack.

 _Anchor_ , my brain automatically reminds me, and I cringe as the voice in my head sounds exactly like Bucky's.

But I obey, pressing against the spot above my heart as Dr. Banner and I both watch the passed out Bucky lying before us.

"What," I have to stop and swallow, my voice cracking on the word. I try again. "What do we do if his healing doesn't kick in? What if it does get infected? What if...what if the knife was poisoned? What if-"

"Hey," Dr. Banner places a hand on my shoulder. "Cool it with the 'what ifs' kid, you're gonna give yourself an aneurysm going down that road. Or you're going to give me one."

I clamp my mouth shut, and my brain goes down the rabbit hole instead, imagining the worst sort of scenarios, imagining him never waking up, imaging him getting sicker and weaker, imagining the hunters finding us and me being unable to protect him…

"Didn't I say to knock it off?" Dr. Banner repeats, squeezing my shoulder. "I can see your brain spazzing out in those bug eyes of yours. Does Stark have this much trouble getting you to listen to him?"

I snort, the sound only slightly hysterical. "Probably more."

"We'll figure this out, okay, Pete?"

I nod, but I can't help but notice that he didn't say 'Bucky will be okay', or 'he'll be fine'.

I watch the rise and fall of Bucky's chest as I scoot back to lean against the wall of the cave, tucking my knees into my chest and resting my arms on top of them. My teeth chew on the inside of my cheeks, probably making my face look ridiculous, but I don't care.

The red, jagged line of his wound contrasts sharply with the white of his skin peeking out beneath his torn suit.

My fault, my fault, my fault.

But there's nothing more we can do.

We cleaned his wound, stitched him up, and maybe we can find something sanitary to cover it without using more webs, but I doubt it. All we can do is watch, wait, and let him rest, hopefully allowing whatever kind of accelerated healing he has to work.

Nothing more we can do.

I sit up straighter.

Except...that's not exactly true, is it?

My heart begins to pump wildly inside of my chest as my thoughts begin to race.

I think of the hook in my shoulder, sawed off and ripped out of me. My body tenses as I remember, as the phantom memories of the pain throb beneath my skin. There had been a gaping hole, but the aliens hadn't stitched it up.

They'd just put those bandages tightly around my shoulder, and let them and my own accelerated healing get to work.

Vision's examination and theory about the composition of the bandages being made from the alien's skin, using their healing abilities in combination with our own.

I know what can help Bucky.

I know what can make sure that his wound heals, and that he survives this.

I just need an alien hunter to do it.

* * *

 **A/N: *waves* anybody there? lol**

 **Sorry about the long wait guys! I went out of town on an impromptu trip to visit my brother, and I'm also participating in July's Camp Nanowrimo, trying to finish up my novel. So tons of work on that, which means this got a little neglected. I will endeavor to balance out my writing a bit, but I appreciate your patience if the updates aren't as quick as I would like!**

 **Everyone take a moment to thank your beta, PippinStrange, who is just phenomenal. If you haven't already, check out her work, because I HIGHLY recommend her Marvel fictions. Gosh they are good and everything I've ever wanted. BEst on the site, hands down.**

 **I'm going to see Ant-Man tomorrow! NO SPOILERS PLEASE! SO EXCITED! :D**

* * *

DarylDixon'sLover: Not dead yet!

sparklydog9: Tehehehehe. I mean. I'm sorry? XD lol!

SummerMistedDragon: :D

kittymyth96: Me too! Buuuuuut some stuff has gotta happen first. ;)

gammathetaalpha: Thank you! Writing them was super fun

TimmyGirl: Thank you so much! I bet that imaginary cookie expired, huh? lol. Sorry about the long update, but I hope you enjoyed nonetheless!

StarStepper: YASSSSS BUCKYYY. And lol! THanks so much! writing them was a blast!

Kairianna864: Thank you! I love Ned too! Everyone around me gets super tired of the Marvel movies and freakouts as well. The struggle is real. lol.

Jeyfeather1234: Yeah...I'm definitely a darker/more intense/direness and actiony type writer. lol. I put these guys through a hard time, but I usually come through for them eventually ;)

cargumentluv: Aw thanks so much! I hope so too! We will see...

LoonyLovegood1981: Ahhhh thank YOU for all the lovely reviews! I have a blast writing this. And I will definitely let you guys know when/if I am able to get my book published! I also love Ned and writing his pov was such a refreshing break from the gloom and doom. Bucky's hanging in there!

Shadow-wolf78: Thanks!

icotnoir: Lol thank you! Figured I should shake things up with a LOTR reference, and also a callback to Silent Night. ;) Glad you liked!

EleanorGardner: AHHHHH THANK YOU! I try so hard and really love hearing when people are happy with the characterizations! Seriously, thank you so so so so so much! And LOTR references, I just HAD to! XD

screechyfangirl: You're welcome. lol

Heroes21: ahhhh omg thank you! :D

GinaBoo: Thanks for your lovely review, as always! Glad you enjoyed Ned's POV and hope you enjoyed this chapter as well!

AppleSpongeCake: *evil grin*

Chocolate369: Love your username by the way. I definitely have plans to do MJ's POV in the fifth installment in this series (I may have already written a chapter for her). Yeah, it'll be a little while before everyone can meet up, I'm afraid. Lots of anticipation, lots of possibilities! Can't wait to share it all with you guys! You're in for a crazy ride. Thanks for the review!

EndoftheLine: OMG thank you! I'm so glad you like it! It's fun getting into teenage Peter Parker's head. Like, you know Bucky is just straight up strategizing and worrying and planning and Peter's over there like, would he be Aragorn in the Fellowship? LOL. Poor Bruce! XD I'm so mean to him. Well, I'm mean to everyone in these stories. lol. Glad you are enjoying and hope this one was enjoyable as well!

Star Wars: You're the second person to notice that! Which is crazy, because I've never even seen those episodes! I probably should! Would be great inspiration!

Guest: Diabolical is extremely accurate. lol. I'll take it. Thank you so much! I love Bucky as well. Every time I write a situation, he's always changing things up like nope, I'm not on board with that. lol

gandalf537: Lol! Glad you liked it! I really enjoyed writing him as well. Was a nice break from all the crazy!

* * *

 **Thank you as always for the lovely reviews, guys. They mean the world to me. I will endeavor to update quicker this time, but can make no promises.**

 **COMING UP**

 **Chapter Eleven: Troublesome Waters**

 **Things are looking grim for our heroes. (When are they not, though? Honestly I am terrible) Steve and Wanda are forced to come up with a dangerous plan, Peter comes up with an even MORE dangerous plan, and Bruce makes a sudden, shocking discovery. (Also, first time writing Dr. Banner's POV :D)**


	11. Troublesome Waters

**Chapter Eleven: Troublesome Waters**

* * *

 **...**

 **...**

 **Steve Rogers**

Vision is sleeping.

I don't know if sleeping is the right word. A state of unconsciousness, of stasis for his computer-like mind to reboot, a chance for his body to maybe start slowly knitting itself back together.

In any case, he lays unnaturally still within the massive hollowed out log, the size of a storm drain tunnel, that we are sheltering in, a bed of dense, green moss beneath his body. Vision's arms are folded across his stomach, his eyelids shut, and were it not for the shallow rise and fall of his chest, I'd think that he…

I'm not even going to go there.

Wanda sits beside him, the tears on her face mingling with the sweat dripping down her cheeks. A bruise is blossoming on her jaw, deep purple against the pale pallor of her skin. Her eyes have taken on a haunted quality, so similar to how I found her in the Raft, a collar around her neck, her arms restrained beneath a heavy straitjacket.

I saw the look on her face when Vision was shot in the clearing. I saw the horror, the devastation morph into something inhuman, a world ending rage that had flooded her body with power. I saw her completely obliterate that alien hunter out of existence.

I've seen her powers before, and I thought I knew their limits. Her limits.

Now, I'm second guessing myself.

I have a feeling that had been only a fraction of her ability, unleashed by a surge of powerful emotion. And as horrible as the thought is, if Vision dies, if he doesn't make it, I have a feeling that whatever leash Wanda is keeping on her power will snap.

The consequences could be devastating.

Wanda takes a steadying breath, swiping at the moisture on her face. "I am going to try again."

I straighten. "You need to rest."

"I've rested long enough," she gives me a sharp look, as if daring me to stop her. "I can't just sit here and do nothing while he-"

Her mouth snaps shut, and I mentally finish her thought for her. While he lies there, dying.

My eyes go to the wound on Vision's chest. There's no denying that Wanda's powers have reduced its size, have started to seal the edges back together. But even I can see that it's not enough. It's nowhere near can keep trying to heal him, but even she admitted that this is beyond her, that she needs Tony or Bruce's help to really fix Vision. And though she's denying it, she is exhausted, her energy depleted. Her focus, her powers are going to be affected by that.

Not only that, but her emotional state has probably left her more than drained, compromising herself with how deep her relationship with Vision goes, how strong her fear that he isn't going to make it, despite her best efforts.

Stark is far beyond our reach, even if the billionaire has miraculously figured out where the aliens took us. But Bruce is somewhere on this planet, somewhere in the jungle.

And I know he is alive. He has to be. If something had happened to the scientist, the Hulk would have made himself known, and no matter how far away the man is, we definitely would have heard _that_.

But with Vision catatonic, with Wanda depleted and desperate, we can't exactly go trekking through the jungle to find him.

"What are you thinking?" Wanda asks, eyeing me.

"I'm thinking we need help."

Her eyebrow arches, her smile almost sad. "You're just now figuring that out?"

Dread settles heavily over me. The choices are laid out at my feet, but both are incredibly dangerous, both could lead to complete disaster. No matter which I pick, the odds aren't in our favor.

I stay with Wanda and Vision, she tries to heal him, but we are essentially stranded in a shelter we can't afford to hide in forever. There's no guarantee she'll be able to fix him fast enough or well enough to keep him alive. We could get ambushed by the aliens while she's using her powers. We could all die. Vision would almost certainly die.

I leave Vision under Wanda's protection and head off on my own to find Banner, to maybe find the others, if I can, and bring them back here so Bruce can help Wanda. The amount of things that could go wrong if I do this, though…

They could be ambushed anyways, and maybe Wanda won't be able to hold the aliens off, and I won't be there to protect them. I could be ambushed on my own before even finding Banner, or spend too much time searching for him, time that Vision doesn't have.

There's no winning here. There's too much risk. No good options. No clear path.

"Go," Wanda says quietly, and I lift my eyes from Vision's unconscious body to look at her. Her expression is grim, but determined, and for a moment I marvel at how much she's changed from an angry child to a fierce soldier.

"I may not find him. I'd be leaving you on your own."

"I can handle it," Wanda promises, her irises flaring scarlet at her words, her jaw tightening. "Steve, I need Bruce Banner. He's Vision's only chance."

There was never really a choice.

"Stay here as long as you can," I order, clasping my shield to the holster across my back as I raise myself up in a crouch beside her. "Stay hidden, and don't draw attention to yourself. If you have to leave, head farther up the mountain."

She nods, keeping her face straight, but even she can't hide the tremor in her hands, the flicker of fear in her eyes. I place a hand on her shoulder, gripping it firmly.

"You got this. You're an Avenger, maybe the strongest out of all of us."

Wanda scoffs at that, turning her gaze back towards Vision. Her face softens, and she places a hand on the android's arm. "Do you really think we're going to make it out of here?" her voice is barely a whisper, and I can't tell if she meant to say the question out loud or not.

"Yes," I say with full confidence. "Hey."

She meets my eyes, her lips pressed in a tight line.

"We're going home," I promise her, my gaze boring into hers as if I can make her believe it. "I'm going to find Bruce, find the others, and Vision will be okay, and we'll all get the hell out of here. Got it?"

With a tremulous smile she nods. "Be careful," she warns, her voice heavy with worry. "And come back."

"I promise," I say, giving them one last look before making my way out of the hollowed out log, nestled up against the steep slope.

God, I hope that that's a promise I'll be able to keep.

* * *

 **Peter Parker **

If Ned could hear my thoughts right now, he would tell me I am certifiably insane. That, or it's the most reckless, most awesome idea he'd ever heard.

My heart is racing in anticipation, thudding against my ribs in terrified excitement. If it works, it could save Bucky's life, it could heal him significantly faster than he would on his own.

I look over at his pale form sleeping against the rocky wall, his wound covered by my webbing, the color sapped from his face. Dr. Banner did all he could for Bucky. But maybe I...maybe I can do more.

Then comes the other thoughts.

There's so much that could go wrong. I could fall into a trap, I could be caught out by those alien hunters, I could be killed, I could be wrong and it won't do anything to help him at all. Then there are the logistics of it all. Finding the dead alien at the bottom of that lake, dragging its body up the cliff and across the jungle to what...skin it?

My stomach roils sharply, and I shake my head to try and clear away the nausea.

This is a dumb plan. This is a bad, bad idea that's going to get me killed or get vomit all over the floor of this cave. This isn't me. I'm not some badass warrior from a sci fi movie that's capable of...of...

"I've been thinking," murmurs Dr. Banner, breaking me from my revolting thoughts. I look over at him to see his eyes focused on my shoulder. "About those bandages on your shoulder."

My eyes widen. "Dude, so have I!"

Dr. Banner looks surprised, maybe a little impressed. "So you remember what Vision said about the composition, about how they most likely contained the alien's own cells, their skin, and that's what sped up the healing process."

I nod, shifting towards him. "I believe it. When my shoulder was completely healed, the bandages flaked off like your skin does after a bad sunburn. It was...beyond gross."

Dr. Banner chews on the inside of his cheek. "It might not work. The bandages are probably made from a composite, using other alien materials alongside their own skin, which we don't have. Just the skin might do nothing. Not to mention how difficult it would be to get it."

"That one that attacked us is dead at the bottom of that lake. If I can get down there-"

"Yeah no, I'm not a parent by any stretch of the imagination, but spelunking for dead bodies is definitely something I know I shouldn't let you do."

"But if it means saving Bucky-"

"We don't know that it would. There's no guarantee it would work, and for all we know, it could do more harm than good," Dr. Banner points out. "And the risks-"

"Are worth it if it means even the slightest chance of helping him," I insist. "Dr. Banner, he saved my life. He's saved it multiple times at this point. I have to at least try to save his."

He hesitates.

"I don't think Bucky would approve of you going off on your own," Dr. Banner grimaces as he glances over at him. "Especially for something like this."

"Well, he's sort of unconscious," I shrug, even though the thought of how pissed he will be makes my stomach twist with nerves. "And he'll probably stay that way for awhile. So who says he has to know?"

"I'm pretty sure if he wakes up with the skinned blanket of our enemies draped over his body, he's going to be suspicious," Dr. Banner says dryly.

I gag. "Dude, do you have to say it like that?"

Oh man, I am in waaay over my head here. This isn't me. I'm not brave enough or cold enough or whatever enough to deal with corpses. I haven't cracked and gone Lord of the Flies crazy yet. I'm not that desperate.

But aren't I? If it means saving Bucky, aren't I willing to do anything?

That's the question. How far am I willing to go to save his life. I look at his wound, at the knife he'd taken for me. And I have my answer. I'd do anything to save him, even if it means doing what I'm thinking of doing.

Get to the dead alien now. Figure the logistics of it out later.

"Sorry. I'm not exactly thrilled about this plan," Bruce says.

"Neither am I, trust me. But it's the best we got."

He lets out a long sigh that sounds more like a groan. "This is a bad idea."

"Come on," I plead, shifting closer. "For Bucky."

"Don't-do that."

"Do what?"

"That thing, with the puppy dog eyes and the face. Does that work on Tony?"

"Definitely not….is it working on you?" I ask hopefully.

"Ughhh," he rubs his eyes in defeat. "I'm going to regret this."

"Not when it works, you won't!" I jump to my feet. "I got this."

"Hey, cool it for a second," Dr. Banner rises up after me, pointing at me with a stern expression on his face. "If anything happens to you, I know several Avengers that will have my head for it, including the one lying unconscious in this cave. And I don't exactly feel good myself about letting you do this."

"I know," I grimace. "It's not really on my bucket list. But someone has to do it. It's worth a shot."

Dr. Banner sighs. "You have to promise you'll be careful. That if it comes down to it, you'll forget about the dead alien and save your own skin first."

"I promise," I vow solemnly, rising. "I'll be back as soon as I can...with whatever I can."

"Good luck, kid. Don't die," Dr. Banner's face looks worn and worried, like he hates himself a little for sending me off. But I'm pretty sure it was my idea first. And if it means saving Bucky, who I owe countless life debts, then I'll do anything.

* * *

I'm making Mr. Stark a list of upgrades that need to happen when I get back to Earth.

Starting with having remote access to all the features when Karen is offline. I've come to rely on her steady presence and abilities, to the point where even I don't know how to work parts of my suit without her.

That's sort of an issue when you're trapped in an alien jungle.

Also...stealth mode.

I desperately need a stealth mode. Whether it self camouflages to my surroundings, or ooh, makes me go invisible, or heck, even if it just went darker so I'm not bright red and blue.

But not black.

Never black.

The sun is starting to go down as I ninja my way to the cliff's edge, the roar of the waterfall overtaking all sound. Crouching along some thick bushes near the river, my eyes catch sight of a few splatters of blood staining the stone where I'd pulled Bucky up.

The sight of it makes my insides clench. It makes my mouth go dry, but it also strengthens my resolve.

For Bucky.

Thinking quickly, I scoop some water into my hands and try to scrub away the spots the best I can. Don't want a trail for the aliens to follow. I hope the bandages prevented any more splatters from decorating the jungle and leading them straight to that cave.

There. Better at least.

I glance up at the darkening sky, and the deep purples melting into sherbert orange that traces the jungle canopy below with streaks of gold. Soon the sky will be pitch black, save for a scattering of dimly lit, distant stars, and the jungle life will be streaked in slivers of red.

I adjust my mask over my face, thankful that at least I know how to toggle between night vision and thermal.

"Okay, Spiderman. You can do this," I mutter to myself.

This is the most messed up thing I've ever had to do, and it will probably traumatize me, but if it works, it'll be worth it.

And like I haven't been traumatized before. Traumatized is way better than dead.

So taking a breath, wincing at the height of the cliff, I maneuver my body as close as I can to the cover of the waterfall, pale mist rising around me, turning gold in the light of the setting sun, and then I begin to crawl head first down the face of the cliff.

This is one of those few moments I am extremely glad it was a radioactive spider that bit me and not something else. Who knew these powers would come in handy climbing down a cliff in an alien jungle to go find a body?

I inch my way down, pausing every now and then to scan the trees and the lake below me, the cliffs on either side of me, the roaring, foaming waterfall to my right. I'm drenched now, the cool water sprays soaking through my suit, but I don't mind.

The heat is relentless, so the waterfall is actually pretty refreshing.

As I descend past the canopy, everything immediately gets darker, the dense branches and massive leaves blotting out the majority of the dying sun. I can see the tiniest of glowing, crimson threads beginning to emerge in the bark of the trees, in the veins of the leaves.

Night is falling, and it's in my favor.

At least, that's what I keep telling myself to keep my terror at bay.

It's dark enough now that I pause in my descent to toggle the modes on my lenses, switching to night vision so that everything becomes illuminated in shades of green, going fuzzy for a moment before focusing into stunning clarity.

I glance around, holding my breath, but there's no sign of any hunters.

So I drop the rest of the way to the ground, landing in a crouch, the sound muffled by the thick, pillowy moss covering the dirt.

Ok, step one complete.

Now for step two: diving repeatedly to the bottom of the lake to find the alien body.

God, I don't want to do this.

My stomach is rebelling at the thought, and I can't imagine how I'm going to feel hauling that thing out of the water and up the cliff.

For Bucky.

I take a steadying breath, lifting my mask above my nose and mouth so the sopping material won't prevent me from breathing every time I surface, and then as silently as I am able to, I wade in.

I have a pretty good idea of where we fell, it can't have been too far from where the waterfall crashes into the lake, sending waves and ripples all the way to the shore.

I got this. No big deal.

The rocky ground falls away from my feet, the water deep enough that I have to swim now. I paddle quietly towards where I imagine I crashed into the lake, and taking one last glance around me, I suck in a deep breath and dive.

The lense around my eyes are as good as goggles, better with the night vision illuminating the water around me. Scraps of organic material float in the water like dust motes, scraggly weeds sway back and forth with the current of the waterfall, everything getting darker the deeper I go.

As soon as I reach the lakebed, I begin frantically scanning for any sign of the alien, my eyes roaming over the rocky surface, the underwater plants creating a jungle of its own for me to search through. Tiny fish dart through the reeds, and I turn all around before my chest begins to tighten painfully, my lungs burning for air.

I kick off the bottom, surging for the surface.

Seconds later I am inhaling deeply, trying to ignore the tense frustration rising in me. I knew it would be unlikely I'd find it on the first try, but I had hoped. And the longer I am out here, the more likely I will be caught, the more likely Bucky could take a turn for the worse.

I paddle farther away from the waterfall, thinking maybe the force of its impact could have shoved the body deeper into the lake.

Shuddering, I take another breath, my cheeks bulging with suppressed air before diving under the surface. I kick harder, faster, propelling my body down deeper into the water, cringing at every brush of the lake weeds against my body, each time thinking an alien hunter has found me.

Nothing.

Three more times I go back for air, and three more times I dive, each fruitless search making my anxiety and desperation swell.

This lake is huge. It could take me hours, days, to search it all. Bucky doesn't have that kind of time.

I don't have that kind of time.

But the body has to be here, it has to be. So I dive again, yanking on the reeds to propel me faster in the water, moving closer to the middle of the lake, where the bed beneath is even deeper, darker, rockier.

I see a massive clustering of moss covered boulders, the curling tendrils of moss drifting lazily in the gentle current.

My heart jolts in my chest, and I nearly gasp before self preservation reminds me that doing so would cause me to drown. There, wedged between the boulders, is an arm.

Exhilaration shoots through me like a knife. I found it! I did it! I-

Then realization crashes back into me. I found it. Which means now I have to deal with it. Swimming closer to it, moving cautiously despite the fact that there's no way it's still alive, I edge around the boulder to get a better look.

Oh god.

The need to breathe becomes too great, my revulsion and panic cinching my chest so tightly, I am forced to kick for the surface. My head breaks free from the water, and my inhales are sharp, ragged. I have to resist the urge to rip off my mask, to swim as fast as I can for the shore.

I think I'm going to be sick.

The dagger that had almost been driven into my body, that had gouged the wound in Bucky's side, is embedded in the alien corpse's throat. I can tell that the killing blow had been sloppy, desperate, Bucky's injury causing him to lash out wildly.

I can tell because the alien's throat is slashed open, the wound so wide and jagged, its head is nearly severed, bobbing in the current and attached to the neck by a thin slab of muscle.

I gag, my stomach clenching, bile surging up my throat, and I only just manage to swallow it down.

God, how am I supposed to go back down there? How am I supposed to get its wreck of a body out from the boulders and back up to the hidden cave?

 _These are not the questions an almost sixteen year old kid from Queens is supposed to be stressing out about!_

The sheer absurdity and horror of the situation nearly send me into peals of hysterical laughter that I stifle down into choking gasps. This is so messed up, my brain can't even handle it.

Just pretend it's a videogame, Parker, I tell myself, briefly closing my eyes as I tread water. It's a videogame, part of the main quest. It's an objective you can't bypass, an essential item needed for the hero's pack in order to aid the wounded side character.

Although, if I'm honest, there's no way I am the main hero in this game, with Bucky as a sidekick.

Still. The little golden marker on my imaginary quest map is pointing down below, the timer to complete this quest running low, and there's no way I will level up or progress in the main quest unless I do this.

So I go back under.

Down, down, down I swim, my throat and chest aching from how much I've had to hold my breath, but within seconds, I am closing in on the body. I am careful to keep my eyes away from the nearly decapitated head, and I move instead to sort of hover above it, my legs and arms kicking to remain in place, my eyes searching for a way to dislodge the body.

Gotta get it out of the water.

Steeling myself, (it's just a videogame, this isn't real), I reach down to grab the corpse's chest by its armor, pulling sharply to test how firmly it is stuck. The body shifts, but doesn't come free. I pull harder, my teeth clenching beneath my bulging cheeks, and it moves again, a little further this time.

Threads of light suddenly emit from the lines of the alien's armor, and startled, I release it, drawing back in a flurry of bubbles.

But I didn't set off a self destruct or an emergency beacon. Apparently I must have activated something within its armor, because the dark plates are shifting, folding over themselves to reveal a hidden container at the alien's side.

With wide, round eyes, I swim forward, reaching hesitantly for the metal cylinder, the size of one of those ancient scrolls you see in old fantasy movies.

Holy shit, maybe this really is a video game.

When I make it to the surface of the lake, I look immediately at the metal tube in my fist, a deep, cool green through my night vision lenses. Kicking my feet to stay afloat, breathing in steady breaths, I reach up to twist off the cap.

Nothing happens.

"Come on," I mutter, twisting harder, twisting counterclockwise, then clockwise, then flipping it over to do the same on the other end. I need to figure out what the heck this is before going back down for the body.

That's when I notice the sliver of raised metal running down the seam of the cylinder, and with my heart thumping in anticipation, I press it down.

The container opens with a click, a panel of it sliding up into the wide top to reveal a series of smaller compartments. It's difficult to stay above the surface of the water, to examine it thoroughly without dunking the contents back into the lake as I try to stay afloat, but I manage.

My eyes go huge.

No freaking way.

There is no way that I just got this lucky. This is way, _way_ too good to be true.

One of the narrow compartments in the cylinder is filled with bandages, rolled into tight coils.

I let out a shocked, disbelieving burst of laughter as I stare at it for a long moment before glancing over the other compartments. There are lots of things in here, most of which I haven't the faintest idea what they are for, not just by my quick perusal, but it doesn't matter.

I am nearly giddy with my treasure like find.

Bandages, actual alien bandages. I don't have to touch the alien body again. I don't have to drag it out of the water or up the cliff or through the jungle.

God, it's like Christmas.

Pressing down on the raised metal button, the cylinder slides itself shut. I keep a firm grip on it as I swim for the waterfall, a grin stretching across my face. My limbs and chest are burning with exhaustion, my ears throbbing painfully from the continued strain of diving so deep, but nothing can shake my elation.

Dr. Banner won't believe our luck!

And who knows what other junk might be in here! The key to finding the others, to escaping this planet and returning home could be inside. At the very least, we just found that hunter's survival kit, and now our own chances of survival have shot significantly up.

"Hang on, Bucky," I mutter as I reach the cliff, reaching up for the first crevice to use as a hand hold, pulling myself up out of the water. "I'm coming."

This time, I'll be the one saving him.

* * *

 **Bruce Banner**

I am going straight to hell.

Did I really just send a fifteen year old kid off by himself to collect a dead body so we could pull some Frankenstein shit on the small chance it could save Bucky?

Holy shit, I think I did.

I groan, pressing the palms of my hands into my eyes, trying to ease the painful increase of my pulse, the tight, compressing feelings of panic knotting up my insides. Stay calm, Banner. Stay calm.

The last thing this situation needs is a raging green monster tearing through the jungle.

There's a muffled growl of disapproval at that thought.

Clearly the other guy disagrees.

"Sorry pal," I murmur with a long exhale as I drop my hands to my lap and lean back against the damp, rocky wall. "Gotta stay backstage a little longer."

I have no doubt in my mind that he'll be taking center stage sooner than I'd like.

A soft groan reaches my ears, and I look over at Bucky. Red light veins the rocks around us, casting his body in a scarlet glow that seems to emphasize his sickly countenance. His brow is furrowed in pain, beads of sweat dripping from his forehead into the dark hair splayed around his head.

Frowning, I move closer, placing my hand on his forehead.

Damn it, he has a fever. Could be his cells attacking the foreign substances from the blade and the lake, fighting against the alien bacteria, which would be good. Or, it could be the start of infection, which would be very, very not good. I don't have the supplies or equipment to deal with infection.

We barely had enough to clean and dress the wound.

I move my fingers to his neck, pressing in and holding my breath to concentrate on the feel of his pulse. Way more rapid than it should be...and increasing.

I suck in a breath through my teeth, leaning over the Winter Soldier's body to examine the patches of webbing serving as a bandage and curse. Red is starting to seep through its center, a dark wet stain marring the white, glistening strands.

The webs are starting to dissolve.

If Peter isn't back by the time they do, we're going to be in trouble. I'll only have my shirt to press over the wound and staunch the bleeding, but if Bucky isn't already dealing with an infection, he most certainly would be if I covered the gash with my filthy shirt.

I look back up at his face, his mouth curved into a tense frown, movement flicking back and forth beneath his closed eyelids. Even unconscious, he looks like a soldier, a leader, ready for action and thinking of every possible outcome.

"Don't die on me," I warn him. "I don't know you, well, at all really, but I do know that Cap will have my head if have to tell him I let his best pal kick the bucket under my medical care. It's not exactly great for my reputation."

He doesn't stir, but I don't expect him to.

"And don't get me started on how the kid will react. You and I both know I am nowhere near equipped to handle an emotionally devastated teenager through a deadly jungle. Just...hang in there, ok?"

Nothing.

A long, weary sigh escapes me, dread sitting heavily in my stomach. I push myself to my feet and move to the narrow entrance of the cave, peeking out for any sign of Peter.

The world beyond is nothing but darkness and a faint network of barely there red lights that make it look like I'm gazing out at a distant city of faint skyscrapers, the illumination within the windows crimson instead of burnt orange.

I can't see anything out there.

I wring my hands nervously.

Should I go after him? Check to make sure he's still ok, demand that he come back and try again when it's light? Going means leaving Bucky completely defenseless, but if that kid gets himself hurt or killed because I-

The lights are gone.

I blink, my brows furrowing as I lean further into the narrow space leading out of the cave, my eyes straining to see, but I can't even make out the faint outline of the trees, everything is so pitch black.

Then the darkness moves, and I jerk back with a choked noise, my arms rearing up defensively, though I don't know what the hell I plan on doing with them if that's an actual alien hunter.

But a pair of large, white, buggy eyes appear in the darkness.

"Jesus!" I gasp out as Peter sidles into the cave, the red glow illuminating his drenched body as he reaches up to yank off his mask and shake out his wet hair. "You scared the crap out of me."

"Sorry," he apologizes, but I can see the excitement rounding his eyes, lifting the corners of his mouth.

Brows knitting together, I look past him for a corpse, but all I see in his hands is a thick, metal cylinder, capped at both ends.

"What is that?" I ask, stepping forward, reaching for it.

Peter hands it to me, his voice tight, the pitch of it rising as he reaches to press a raised metal button on its side to open it. "An alien hunter's survival kit! I got it off the body in the lake, and look!"

He pulls out a tightly coiled bundle of fraying fabric. "Bandages!"

"Kid, you're amazing," I breathe, grinning as I take it, pretending not to notice the pleased flush on Peter's face that even the dim red light of the cave can't hide.

This is better than I could have imagined, and Bucky will stand a real chance now. And hey, didn't permanently emotionally scar a fifteen year old, which is a huge plus in my book.

I hand Peter back the cylinder, hurrying to Bucky's side.

The man's breathing is shallow, his body tense even though he's unconscious, and as I kneel beside him I see that more of the webbing has dissolved, the stain of red growing beneath the remains.

I'm fairly confident that the webs will continue to dissolve beneath the alien bandages, their composition fragile enough that Barnes's body should easily fight off what little of the foreign substance would enter his system. Especially with the alien bandages assisting his accelerated healing.

It's all theory, but theory is all that we have right now.

I unfurl the bandages, wincing slightly at the texture, at the knowledge of the makeup of the infrastructure holding the fibers together. Holding it barely half an inch above the wound, I begin lightly pressing it to his skin, the bandages containing some natural adhesive of their own so that they stay firmly in place.

Peter hovers as I carefully cover every inch of the gash, using the majority of the bundle he'd handed to me, and when I sit back, he asks, "Is it working? Is he going to be ok?"

"It's too soon to tell," I admit, then, seeing the look on his face, add, "But yeah, kid, he's gonna be fine. Remember yours? You passed out pretty quick on that ship when they brought you back, slept for a couple of hours. When you woke up you could already feel a difference. We'll let him rest, and by morning, I have no doubt he will be right as rain."

Unless we are wrong. Unless the infection has spread too quickly, too deep into his system. Unless the severity of the wound and the different levels of accelerated healing mean that Bucky could take days to heal, even with the bandages.

I have enough sense to say none of this out loud.

Looking up, I see Peter's attention has been captured by the rest of the contents in the container. I motion for him to bring it down so I can look too.

"What is all this stuff?" he murmurs, eyes wide with curiosity.

"I don't know," I peer closer, wishing we had more light than the dim veins of red glowing from the rock around us.

There are eight compartments within the cylinder, and Peter is right, it's definitely some kind of alien survival kit. An empty space remains where the bandages were coiled up in, and beside it are several tubes of a faint green, glowing liquid. I take one carefully between my fingers, holding it up to get a better look.

"What is _that_?" Peter asks, the combatting red and green light on his face making it look like a demented sort of Christmas.

"Could be anything," I swirl the liquid encased in the narrow glass tube. "Some kind of stimulant maybe, to keep them alert...could be something with medicinal value."

"Or maybe it's an antitoxin. A lot of these plants have got to be poisonous," Peter says excitedly. "Even some of the smaller alien species and insects that live here. It'd be smart to carry something to combat it if they got scratched or bit."

"Yeah, maybe," I set it back down carefully in its container. It's a good theory, a really good one. And I recognize that look on his face. It's the look I know I get when I am discovering something, the look Tony gets when we bounce around ideas, discussing possibilities and experimentation and outcomes before diving headfirst into a project that could change the world or kill us in a horrifically violent manner.

I think the kid might be a junior science bro.

Didn't he say he wrote several reports on my research?

I turn my attention back to the compartments, rifling through small, strange mechanical devices, a handful of thin, black disks rimmed in silver with a bulging center, and there, at the very end…

My eyes go huge.

"Oh my god," I breathe, reaching for it.

"What? What is it?"

My finger shake a little as I lift the eyepatch from the container, staring in horror at the familiar curve of it.

Thor.

Oh god, this is _Thor's_.

Pain erupts behind my eyes, crushing my skull in a hell of a migraine that has even the other guy moaning in discomfort. I drop the eyepatch, pressing my palms against my eyes in an attempt to contain the agony, a groan escaping my lips.

"Dr. Banner?! Dr. Banner, what's wrong?"

But I can't reply as my teeth clamp together, pain spearing through my brain.

And then, I remember.

I remember everything.

* * *

 **A/N: You guys didn't think I would just leave it at, "The last thing I remember of Thor is our ship being attacked and then I was waking up on Earth" did you? That Bruce just conveniently appeared on Earth without any explanation? ;) Next chapter, you get the answers you've been waiting for...but this belongs in the Coming Up section at the end of the author's note. Moving on!**

 **And before you say anything, yeah I know. There's NO way Peter would actually be able to drag a corpse around the jungle and skin it in the hopes of saving Bucky. If it came down to it, he wouldn't have been able to do it. He's not that messed up. But he was desperate enough to try, and Bruce was scared enough to let him. And it all worked out for them in the end anyways. But no, to answer your questions or comments, I wouldn't have ACTUALLY had Peter skin a dead alien. I'm not that messed up, and he is certainly not that messed up.**

 **Special thanks to PippinStrange this week, you are the ultimate fangirl and I would be absolutely lost without you. You guys, she is not only the best beta ever, but her own fiction is out of this world! Where They Go is my current obsession, and even connects to this very series. Down Came the Rain is the fic that got me writing, and her Spiderman meets Deadpool fic had me in tears I was laughing so hard. Today we got into a conversation about the next couple fics in the CMFU and it's gonna be insaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaane.**

 **Did you guys see Ant-man and the Wasp? SO good. I love Scott. So much.**

* * *

Sparklydog9: Lol! Sorry! ;) Can't help the giggle

StarStepper: Thank you so very much! Writing has definitely consumed my life at this point. ;) Glad you enjoyed and that my updates make you so excited!

parisindy: Thank you! :D

LoonyLovegood1981: Yasss Shuri and Peter! Can't wait for that. Yes, everyone needs to take care! This jungle is not kind to them, and nor is the author writing this fic. lol Thank you! Lots of love your way as well!

DarylDixon'sLover: things may be looking up for him!

Kairianna864: Ahhhh I know. It's painful to write too! I don't know why I do this to them. lol.

Heroes21: Thanks! and I do too! Shuri is amazing

gammathetaalpha: Thank you! It's been challenging finding the time to get my word count in every day. THANKS so much! I loved writing Tony in that scene. XD

PhoenixFlair13: TRUTH

twylght: you know Peter...lol.

AppleSpongeCake: Hey, good point! Does that give you hope? lol! Doesn't mean I can't do terrible, terrible things to his character. Not that I will. I mean, I never do terrible things to him. Nope. Not once. Definitely won't happen again. :D

cargumentluv: I'm not a fan of all the splitting up either! I tried to keep them altogether but darn Avengers are just running away from me! lol. Thank you so much! Trying to figure out the characterization of everyone has been challenging but so fun

screechyfangirl: ALWAYS LOL

LivLoveFriends521: O.M.G. Your review tho. The FanFiction gods? Ahhhh that made my DAY. Seriously wow. I really do try and put so much into these stories and watching the movies nonstop to improve action or to capture voices certainly helps and is fun! I am so invested in this storyline and these characters Marvel created, especially since they aren't taking very good care of them right now. (Although to be fair, neither am I. But I haven't killed anybody yet. lol) But seriously, your review was incredible and made me so happy. Thank you so so so much for taking the time to do that. I really appreciate it.

Seawell: SO true. Damn hero complexes always outweighing the common sense. lol

Jeyfeather1234: That Shuri. Such a rebel. lol.

SummerMistedDragon: :D

Guest: Oh my word, I would sell my soul to get these into movies. (Although PippinStrange keeps saying that I've already sold my soul to Stan Lee XD) Thank you SO much for your kind review! I'm so glad you see Peter's growth through this series, and that you've stuck along for the ride and enjoyed it! Means so much to me! I also love pairing up these guys in new ways!

Guest: Thanks so much! I had originally intended Shuri to stay in Wakanda, but her character had other ideas, clearly. Tony and Bruce and their junior science kids! I love it! XD Thanks! I am planning on writing hardcore for Nano tomorrow!

GinaBoo: Omgggggg I wish it could be a movie! I would literally die from happiness. Unfortunately yes, more bad stuff coming up, but such as it is with me! lol! And YES! Total Pitch Perfect reference. XD Glad you're enjoying!

Guest: Awwww thank you! Things are always gonna get worse before they get better, especially in my fics ;)

Guest: THANK YOU! :D So weird that you didn't get a chapter alert! I wonder why that happened! Let me know if that happens again, maybe I can email support.

Shadow-wolf78: Thanks so much!

* * *

 **COMING UP:**

 **Chapter Twelve: I Walk the Line**

 **This is where questions are answered at last. Just what happened when Thor's ship was attacked? How did Bruce get from there, to Earth? What terrible news does Bruce carry with him now that he gets his memory back? What happens now?**

 **Also...who's ready for some Ant-man versus alien action? ;)**


	12. I Walk the Line

**Chapter Twelve: I Walk the Line**

* * *

 **The Hulk**

 _Everything too loud. Too bright._

 _Hulk bellows, drowning out screaming, beeping, crashing, tearing._

" _Hulk!"_

 _Hulk turns, growling, ready for fight. Thor looks up at Hulk, puny face worried._

 _Hulk not worried. Hulk angry. Hulk claws at metal walls and shiny wires._

" _Hulk, stop it, you stupid beast! You're going to tear the ship apart!" Thor shouts._

" _Ship breaking anyway!" Hulk slams fist into sparking wall to show Thor. Thor grabs Hulk's fist with tiny hands. Hulk thinks of breaking Thor instead._

" _Those are the escape pods, you moron!" Thor yells again, always yelling, makes Hulk want to yell back. "My people are trying to get out of here! The aliens are that way!"_

 _Thor points. Hulk grins._

 _Ship under attack by bigger ship, alien ship, swarming like ants. Hulk will smash them to pieces, crush more than puny Thor will. Hulk runs, shoves Thor into wall, pushes past screaming people._

 _Ship ride boring. Asgard people boring. Hulk ready for fight._

 _Hulk roars, daring aliens to come close._

 _Aliens bigger than tiny Thor. Tall, but still smaller than Hulk. They throw sharp sticks that sting. Hulk gets angrier, a raging fire, hitting sticks away before Hulk crashes into aliens. Hulk swings fists, punching and slamming and throwing aliens through walls._

 _Hulk will win fight._ _Hulk wins every fight._

 _Bright lightning shoots by Hulk, and Hulk grunts and squints as it hits alien warrior Hulk was about to crush with huge fists._

 _"Hey! Mine!" Hulk shouts as Thor swings small sword, lightning blasting off metal and barreling into aliens._

 _"This isn't a game! We have to hold them off long enough for Valkyrie to get my people to safety," Thor spins, driving weapon into alien's gut._

 _More aliens flood hallway. More aliens for Hulk to smash._

 _Sword-man with bright eyes comes behind them, swinging and stabbing and getting in Hulk's way. Hulk roars, grabbing two aliens by necks and pummeling them into wall, tearing wall down with it. More room to fight._

 _"There's too many of them!" Sword-man calls out._

 _"We just have to keep them back until the escape pods are a safe distance away," Thor shouts back, lightning bright. "Where is Loki?"_

 _"Gone. Captured or snuck onto one of the escape pods."_

 _"Damn it!"_

 _Hulk not surprised. Loki baby. Sneaky baby._

 _Sword-man say too many aliens, but Hulk not think so. Not too many for Hulk. Maybe for Sword-man and Thor with their baby arms and baby swords-_

 _Arms wrap around Hulk's neck, squeezing tight, stronger than Hulk expect. Hulk reaches up to peel alien off and smash their skull, but chains wrap around Hulk's arms, pulling down hard. Hulk falls to knees, roaring angrily, thrashing and bucking. Hulk tries to fall, to crush alien on Hulk's back, but chains pull tighter._

 _"Hulk!"_

 _"I can't get to him! We're being overrun!"_

 _"Are the-gahh! Have the escape pods moved out of range?!"_

 _Hulk roars too loud to hear useless words. Hulk rages and struggles, using all Hulk's strength to stand. Hulk twists hard, yanking aliens off feet, whipping chains across more aliens, bellowing victory._

 _Hulk reaches behind, grabs alien by head and slams it into ground, lifting and smashing, lifting and smashing until alien stops moving._

 _Hulk always wins._

 _"We have to warn them, we have to call for aid! Can you do it?" Thor still wastes breath talking. "Heimdall, can you do it?!"_

 _"I...will do...my best," Sword-man grunts._

 _More aliens come. Endless aliens with bigger guns and nets and spears. Hulk runs forward, roaring, yelling, fists raising-_

 _"All Father, let the Dark Magic flow through me once more."_

 _Light burns Hulk's eyes. Hulk throws arm up, yelling, but light is brighter, white and colors-it's pulling Hulk, dragging Hulk away._

 _"NO!" Hulk bellows, stomping, digging feet into metal ship, pushing against light, reaching for aliens. "HULK STAY!"_

 _"Warn them, Banner!" Thor shouts, quiet, far away, and Hulk is pulled back, staggering. Hulk no go. Hulk stay! "You have to warn them! The Dravec are coming! They come for Earth!"_

 _"HULK STAY!"_

 _Hulk smashes light, but light too strong. Light pulls and yanks and drags and then Hulk's feet in air and Hulk flies, yelling and roaring and friends and aliens and ship gone, gone, nothing but light and color and-_

 _SLAM!_

* * *

 **Bruce Banner**

Oh god.

Oh my _god_.

Hulk is bellowing inside me, the roar deafening, my heart racing so fast it threatens to leap from my chest. I'm yelling through clenched teeth, my fingers digging into my scalp, pulling at my hair.

I can feel his rage, _my_ rage, building and swelling and cracking beneath my skin-tendons straining, bones jerking, my breath ragged and heaving-

"Dr. Banner!"

Tiny spider's voice grates, buzzes in my ears-angry, so angry, Hulk will smash-

No-no!

Peter. That is Peter Parker's voice near me, a fifteen year old _kid_ who needs me to stay calm, to keep it together-

RAGE AND HEAT AND BREAKING-

NO! We can't Hulk out. We can't. It will draw every alien on this damn planet to us. They'll kill Peter. They'll kill Bucky. They'll-

THOR LEFT HULK-THOR SENT HULK AWAY-THOR NOT FRIEND-

Thor had a reason, we had to warn them, we were supposed to-

HULK NOT CARE-HULK SMASH PUNY ALIENS-HULK SMASH EVERYONE-

"Dr. Banner?! You're-oh god. Oh god oh god oh god. Don't turn green! Shit, you're turning green! Hey, hey, hey, stay with me! You gotta calm down!"

" _Don't tell me to calm down!_ " I roar at him, fists clenching at my sides, my voice layered and deepening, my skin stretching over bulging muscles, my heart like Thor's hammer slamming inside my chest.

Peter's eyes are huge, his hands flying up placatingly as he takes a couple jerky steps back. "Ok, ok! Just...what do I do? Tell me what to do!"

I half groan, half yell as I cradle my head in my hands, caught in the transformation, teetering on the edge between violent rage and petrifying fear, dragging and pulling and shrinking and swelling-

" _Distract me,_ " I order through grinding teeth, my body shuddering, convulsing. I can no longer stay still. I lurch to my feet, stumbling into the wall as I thrash, feeling my body grow, my rage grow even faster.

"OK! Ok, um-oh shit! Oh man, uhh-uhhh-holy crap you're getting ginormous-UH-Dr. Banner! Why can't you trust atoms?!"

I punch the wall, the stone shuddering beneath my growing fist, dust raining down on us.

"Because they make up everything!"

I blink, turning my head to stare at the petrified teenager, his body utterly still, his eyes wide and frantic, frozen like a deer in the headlights.

I take a breath, then another.

We just stare for a moment, a long, drawn out, tense moment.

Then I let out a snort of laughter.

And just like that, my rage dulls to a simmer, my muscles contracting, shrinking down as I force my breathing to slow, to even out. Sweat drips down my neck, my forehead, and I wipe it away shakily as I slump to the ground, blood rushing to my head, making me dizzy.

"A science pun?" I raise a brow, still shaken by the near transformation. " _Really_?"

Peter lets out a massive sigh of relief, slumping to the ground himself and giving me a shaky grin. "It worked, didn't it?"

"Yeah kid, it worked," I scrub at my face, suddenly feeling more exhausted than I've ever been. "Crap that was close."

"You're telling me," Peter breathes, his eyes still bulging a little. "Even with the red lights all over the rocks I could _see_ you turning green. That was insane! What happened?"

"What do you mean what happened? I nearly introduced you to my large, angry friend. I thought that was pretty self explanatory."

"No, I mean duh, I knew that. I meant why? What triggered it?"

My head is throbbing with residual pain, my stomach contracting with dread, with anxiety as I reach back down for the fallen eyepatch, cradling it in my slightly trembling palm. "This did," I answer heavily.

Peter's brows crease with confusion. "What is that?"

"This belongs to Thor. It's his eyepatch."

"Wait, what? Thor has an eyepatch?! What happened to his eye?"

"His sister stabbed him."

"In the _eye_?!"

"Pete, you're kind of missing the point here."

Peter frowns at it, eyes still round with shock, and then I see it click in his expression as his gaze snaps to mine. "What the hell is it doing here? Why did the alien hunter have it in its pack?"

There it is.

Peter asked the right question, and now, thanks to this eyepatch and the Hulk sized migraine I'm sporting, I have the answer.

My eyes squeeze shut, and my fingers begin to rub circles at my temples.

There's no hiding from the horrifying truth now.

"I was on Thor's ship, with the rest of the Asgardians, heading for Earth. Asgard had been destroyed, and his people had nowhere else to go," I begin slowly, my mind racing with blurred images, seen through larger eyes than my own. "But our ship was attacked, and until now, I couldn't remember by who or what. I couldn't remember anything of what happened."

I open my eyes, leaning my head back against the wall. Peter's jaw is hanging open, his eyes wide as he hangs on my every word. I don't know that I've ever had such a captive audience. I think of how cool this must sound to an outsider, to a teenage kid who idolizes heroes and probably reads an unhealthy amount of comic books.

I wince at how I'm gonna have to watch that awed expression turn to horror.

"Thor's ship was destroyed by the same one that came to Earth, that took us," I say heavily. "By the same aliens that are hunting us right now."

"No way," Peter breathes, eyes wide as saucers.

"Unfortunately, yes way. Most of his people were able to escape. Valkyrie-," my stomach constricts. "One of our friends was leading them to safety. Our ship was overrun, and though the big guy would never admit it, we were losing, badly."

I feel a grumble in my chest at that, anger stirring up once again. But I have a hold on it this time, even as the images race across my brain, the torn metal walls of the ship, the sparks showering the halls we fought in, the alien hunters, ruthless and armored and fighting to capture, not kill.

"One of Thor's friends...I don't think I ever heard his name, or Hulk never cared enough to remember it, used…some kind of quantum teleportation through hyperspace to send me back to Earth. I don't know how the hell he managed to do that. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in a crater in the middle of nowhere with no memory of how I got there."

I scrub at my mouth, guilt knotting in my gut. "I was supposed to warn the Avengers that they were coming...the...the Dravec, he called them. Instead I spent two weeks catching up with old friends and trying to remember what happened. Real useful."

"Holy shit," Peter breathes, staring at me. "So...so if the aliens-the Dravec attacked Thor's ship...they must have taken the survivors like they took us! They must have dropped them here in the jungle! Which means-"

I watch as his excited realization shifts to dawning horror as his eyes dart down to the eyepatch.

Because it was highly likely that Thor and the others had been captured, that they'd been marooned and hunted like we are now.

And Thor's eyepatch was shoved into an alien hunter's pack like some kind of trophy.

"No!" Peter shakes his head. "No way! There's _no_ way they got-I mean, it's _Thor_! He's a freaking god! They _couldn't_ have-"

"I know, Pete. I know," I swallow, my thumb rubbing against the leathery material of the patch. "Look, it was probably a close call or something. And the alien was using the eyepatch to...I don't know...track him, or something? Maybe to catch the scent? If these things even have that kind of smell. God, I don't know."

I want to believe it.

I want to believe that Thor is out here somewhere, hiding in the jungle, waiting for us to stumble over him so he could do something spectacularly heroic to save our asses. I want to believe that I didn't fail him and the others, that I didn't damn them to horrific deaths at the hands of monsters while I knocked back drinks with Tony.

And hey, the kid does have a point. Thor is a god. I'd seen first hand exactly what he is capable of. I know he could survive a long time in this environment, against these aliens. There's a chance he's still out there, that this eyepatch doesn't mean anything.

There's a chance.

I've gotta believe he's out there.

The alternative is too horrible.

"I doubt the aliens have a superior sense of smell."

Peter and I both jolt, heads whipping towards Bucky as he pushes up on his forearms, wincing at the pain.

"Bucky!" Peter cries, lunging forward and stopping himself at the last minute. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got stabbed."

Peter winces, his face falling a little before Bucky's mouth forms a tight smile. "It's not as bad," he assures the kid, then frowns as he looks down at his side. "Where the hell did you find bandages?"

"Uhhhhhhh," Peter's face goes blank as he not so subtly shakes his head at me as if to say 'don't say anything'.

Bucky's eyes snap up to the kid's face, narrowing in on him like a hawk after prey. The kid's stammering gets worse as he rubs the back of his neck, looking every bit the cornered rodent.

I take pity on him.

"I found it," I tell Bucky wearily, and the man's intense gaze moves to me.

"You found it," he repeats doubtfully.

"Your confidence in me is very heartening. Yes, I found it. Left the kid to watch you and found this alien pack in the jungle. You're lucky I did, too. Wound was getting infected."

Bucky eyes me suspiciously, then Peter, who blinks at him with wide eyed innocence before he leans back and examines the bandage covered wound. In the corner of my eyes I see Peter's shoulders slump in relief as he mouths "thank you" in my direction.

I move closer to Bucky, trying to hide my exhaustion as I peer at the bandages. "How's it really feeling?" I ask.

"I've had worse," he murmurs, and I believe it.

"The fact that you're conscious right now is a good sign," I lift my head towards his face. "May I?"

He nods, and I press the back of my hand to his forehead. "Your fever broke. Damn, those things work fast."

"I wish they'd work faster," Bucky winces, grunting in pain as he shifts his body into a more comfortable position. "We shouldn't stay here."

"Yeah, you aren't going anywhere anytime soon, pal," I tell him. "So don't be getting any ideas. That has a ways to go before you can trek through an alien jungle."

Bucky looks inclined to disagree, but just shifting positions seems to have sapped what little energy he had out of him.

"How long have I been out?"

"A while. It's the middle of the night now. You might be good enough to go by morning."

"Are you sure you're ok?" Peter asks. "We were really starting to-"

He cuts himself off, his body going rigid, pupils blown as his head whips to the entrance of the cave, completely alert.

"What is it?" I ask, a chill shivering down my spine.

"I don't know," Peter's voice drops to a whisper. "Something's wrong. Hang on."

He moves to the narrow opening of the cave, and Bucky, clenching his teeth in pain as he slowly pushes himself up to a sitting position, sends a grim look in my direction.

I'm not a fan of that look.

That's the "I'm a soldier and we'll all go down fighting together if we have to, look."

We wait with bated breath, bodies tense as Peter edges slowly to the thin gap leading out of the cave, slipping on his mask to no doubt use his night vision to get a better look. It makes me nervous, him moving so close to the open like that.

I get to my feet just as Peter moves back, his lenses wide and body stiff with fear as he whispers in a hiss, "We got company."

Shit.

"How many?" Bucky demands in a near silent voice.

I can see the kid's throat bob through his suit. "Four."

"Jesus," I breathe, fear shooting through me. There's no way we could take on four with all three of us at our best, not without unleashing the Hulk and calling more to us. And Bucky is in no shape to fight or run.

If they find us, we're done for.

"We stay quiet," I mouth, barely whispering. "Stay hidden until they leave."

Peter shakes his head, dismay radiating off his tense body. "They're heading straight for us. I think...I think they might have followed me from the lake."

Oh god. I stare at him in horror as Bucky tries to pull himself to his feet, gritting his teeth to fight back his cries of pain. The lenses in Peter's mask widen as they stare at me, and I can tell he's realizing what I already have.

Bucky can't fight back. Bucky can't run.

And I'm going to have to turn into the Hulk.

I heave a breath, the grim reality settling over me. The big guy can take those four no problem, but he won't be careful, and he won't be quiet. I can hope that he will lead any other hunters away from Bucky and the kid, that he'll have enough sense to cause a big enough diversion that no one thinks about this small, hidden cave. But I can't know that for sure.

And if enough alien hunters try to take the Hulk down...they might even succeed.

Those pale lenses narrow at me, then at Bucky, and those skinny shoulders roll back, the kid's stature determined...decided.

Bucky sees it for what it is before I do.

" _No_ ," he hisses. "If you even think of setting one _foot_ outside of this cave-"

"I'll lead them away, then double back when I've lost them."

I grab for him, but he darts away before I can so much as touch him. "No, you won't! I-"

"You can't turn green. Not yet. You'll get swarmed," he hisses quietly, edging for the cave's exit. He looks at Bucky, those white lenses narrowing resolutely. "I'll come back. I'll find you."

I lunge for him again, but by the time I reach him, the kid is gone.

* * *

 **Scott Lang**

 _"You sure you got this, Lang?"_

"You doubting me, Romanov? Or are you just jealous that I get to do the stealth stuff this time?"

 _"Someone's still bitter."_

"Not bitter, just...acrimonious."

 _"That means bitter."_

"Potato, potahto."

" _Perhaps we should focus on the task at hand,_ " Okoye interrupts before I can say more, her voice dry and unamused.

I appease her, falling into silence as I, the size of an ant, race down the hall of the alien ship.

The floor beneath me is wide metal grating, the dark, intersecting roads like massive bridges, the holes like huge yawning pits ready to swallow me up if I slip. If I were my normal size, the gaps would only be large enough to drop a quarter through.

Red light gleaming through cracks in the black stone walls on either side pulse like rivers of lava, lighting my path and casting everything in a villainous glow like I'm on the set of Alien or something. And high, high, high above loom the arched ceilings, tall enough for the height of the alien warriors who'd attacked Earth to stride through without having to worry about ducking.

I feel extra small.

 _"What happened last time?"_ Princess Shuri asks curiously.

"Huh?"

" _You said you get to do the stealth stuff this time. What happened last time?"_

"Nothing," I say quickly, leaping over several dark chasms and bridges of metal to run closer to the wall.

Natasha, the sweetheart that she is, decides to answer for me.

 _"Lang volunteered to seduce a sixty three year old male Hydra operative as a distraction while I got the incriminating evidence locked in his bedroom."_

Snorting, scandalized teenage laughter echoes in my earpiece, making me clench my teeth as I skid to a stop at the corner of the hallway, peering around the edge to make sure the coast is clear before darting down it.

"First off, I did not volunteer. Second-"

A door hisses open.

I drop, sliding across the metal beam to drop into one of the many gaps, clinging to the edge with my gloved fingers at the last possible moment.

Holy _shit_.

This is my first real look at the alien species that had captured our friends, and it is even more horrific than my imagination had come up with. Being as small as I am makes it doubly as intimidating with its gleaming black armor, mottled, stone like skin, the black and red eyes looming over a badass metal mask covering the lower half of its face, the spines running across the center of its bald head, down its spine.

Its footsteps thunder across the hall, making the metal I am clinging to shudder violently, my fingers nearly losing their grip.

I watch with bated breath as it passes over me, the tremors so powerful, I have to swing my leg up for an extra hold before I fall. I had worried for a moment that with those sharp, dark eyes, it would be able to spot me, even as small as I am, but the alien continues down the hall, oblivious of my presence.

I pull myself the rest of the way up, blowing out a breath of relief and shaking out my arms before sprinting for the door the alien had exited from.

" _You were saying?_ " Shuri reminds me, a smile in her voice.

"Ah forget it. You all will mock me mercilessly no matter what I say."

" _True_ ," she concedes. " _But it would be more entertaining with details._ "

That's definitely not happening. Natasha, surprisingly, doesn't offer her any either.

I run faster, leaping into the air at the last moment to cling to one of the ledges created by the sharp stone pieces making up the wall, and then I begin scaling up towards the control panel.

Reaching it, I slip through a crack, finding myself in a rectangular space stuffed with wires and circuitry, but like none I have ever seen before. The wires are translucent, red light pulsing within them like veins carrying blood. The circuit boards and outlets are more organic in shape, with odd looking runes glowing dimly as well.

"Uhhhhhhh...thoughts?"

" _Give me a moment_ ," Shuri murmurs.

A steady, electrical hum vibrates the air around me as I scan my surroundings, making sure the princess has an excellent view of all the components through the video feed emitting from my helmet.

" _Interesting. They have their own energy source_ ," muses Shuri, speaking her thoughts aloud as she tries to work through the alien technology. _"They're using a split cable entry system, but the current within the wires is flowing up…"_

"No shield clamps either, they must have worked their way around that," I add, circling and ducking through the wires. My background in electrical engineering can only assist me so far when I'm surrounded by advanced alien technology.

" _I got it,_ " her voice oozes satisfaction. _"Reroute the third wire on your left. Insert it into the first outlet at the control panel base."_

"Are you sure? This isn't going to accidentally trip their security system, is it?"

 _"I am positive,_ " Shuri shoots back, her voice taking on a dangerous tone. " _Unless you doubt me?"_

"No, no, definitely not," I reply as I do as the princess instructs, grunting as I wrap my arms around the thick wire, twisting and pulling to drag and insert it into the base.

The hum around me shifts to a deeper pitch, then a series of clicks and whirs echo loudly within the small space, and I peek out the crack in the side to see the door slide open. I leap out, running into the room and diving behind a chunk of rock jutting out from the wall.

I'm in what has to be the security center of the entire ship, though the layout is different than any I have ever seen before. I mean, duh, it is an alien spacecraft. There are no monitors or screens, instead crimson 3-D holographic images rise up in the very center of the room over a gaping hole in the floor, a mess of diagrams in a foreign language and images depicting the layout of the ship.

Two aliens stand on either side of it, both stiffening as the door opens, their gazes shooting towards the empty threshold. One lets out a hiss, striding to look out into the hall before shaking its head and muttering something to the other.

I let out a breath of relief as they return to their work, the alien's creep eyes cooly observing as their long fingered hands swipe through, moving images this way and that, highlighting lines of symbols and exchanging them with other.

"I've got two hostiles," I murmur into my communicator. "Damn these guys are ugly. Preparing to engage."

" _You'll have to be quick, Scott,_ " Natasha warns. " _If they sound the alarm, we're all done for."_

"Yeah, yeah, take down the aliens, do it quick, have Shuri walk me through disabling their defenses and then let you all aboard like one big happy family. Anything else?"

" _Don't die_ ," says Okoye.

"Aaaand thank you for that."

Okay Scott, despite their thoroughly encouraging commentary, you totally got this. Show these guys what Ant-man can do.

It's go time.

I leap from my hiding place, charging forward, arms pumping, heartbeat quickening.

Fighting aliens in space. No big deal. This happens all the...never. This happens never. Oh god.

I go up behind one of the aliens, kicking off of the floor and bounding up through the air like a bullet, higher and higher until my fist slams into the side of its neck. It stumbles, slamming into the stone wall with a surprised hiss as I use the momentum of the blow to backflip straight through the massive tower of 3-D holograms. The sole of my boots slam into the second alien's chest, and the creature goes flying back.

My body falls, and before I can hit the ground, I press the trigger on the side of my hand, my body enlarging within seconds.

"Evening gentlemen," I say, giving them a small salute. "Or...well, I assume you're male based on how completely hideous and masculine you are. If you're female, my sincere apologies...and _yeesh_."

The aliens shift into defensive positions, hissing as they bare their wrists, black, jagged daggers sliding out of them and gleaming in the crimson light.

"Shit! Wow, that is absolutely next level, with the knives in the wrists thing. I'm very uncomfortable right now."

They charge for me as one, the second one I'd hit reaching me first, slashing down its knived arm in a killing blow. But I'm already gone, smaller than an ant, my boots landing on the blade as it stabs for me. I spring up the alien's arm, its eyes widening in shock at the place where I once stood, then narrowing in suspicion.

It doesn't even register that I am now at its shoulder, delivering a spinning kick to its masked jaw.

There's a loud crack, a pained hiss, and as I spin, landing on its shoulder, my eyes widen. The two halves of the metal mask encasing the lower half of its face fall to the ground, clattering on the metal floor.

"Oh my god," I breathe, eyes widening as I stagger back, nearly slipping. "Are you guys _seeing_ this?"

Two gaping holes are set into its grey skin where a nose should be, and beneath that is the mouth, looking more like someone had torn a gash into the alien's face, a jagged line of ripped skin that begins to separate, stretching open, releasing a layered shriek of fury. A handful of misshapen, gleaming black fangs set into pale gums stare back at me.

"Jesus Christ!" I flip back into the air as its jaws snap for me. "No wonder you guys wear masks!"

" _Scott, you're running out of time-"_

"Give me a sec!'

My back arches as I leap over the second alien's head, my hands reaching out to seize one of the black, red tipped spikes protruding from the back of its skull. Hanging on by one hand, I cup my other in front of my helmet and shout, "Hey! Over here!"

The unmasked alien, its face nearly rabid in its fury, locks eyes on me and charges. I swing on the spike, pulling with all my might and yanking the alien's head so it tilts sideways, making it stumble to the left.

Its body jerks in my grasp as the unmasked alien's blade stabs through its throat.

Oh geez. That was more violent than I had expected. I figured it would receive a punch in the face, but there's no time to dwell on it. The alien's body drops beneath me, and as I fall, I trigger the technology in my suit, my body growing rapidly. I use the momentum of the compressed energy to surge up, slamming my fist straight into the alien's teeth.

Its head snaps back, cracking into the stone wall sharply before it drops to the ground, eyes rolling back into its skull.

"And that, ladies, is how it's done," I pant, rolling my neck from side to side as I move for the holographic images in the center of the room.

" _We're all very impressed,_ " Natasha says dryly.

They should be. I am. I sort of expected to die.

As before, I examine every angle of the diagrams so that the others have a clear view through the camera in my helmet. It takes Shuri longer this time to figure out a general idea of what the images mean, which strange runes apply to what.

I'm pretty sure something like an alien language or advanced technology from outer space is supposed to take decades to begin to understand, but the princess is clearly a grade A genius, taking minutes where others would take years.

When I comment on it, she replies, _"It's not like I just decoded their entire language. I'm just cross referencing the diagrams to the layout of the ship and comparing it to our own security programs back in Wakanda. Mostly guesswork."_

 _Genius_ guesswork.

I follow her instructions to the letter, having to stand nearly on my toes to reach some of the lines of code, but within minutes, at least to the best of our knowledge, security systems are down; alerts silenced, alarms disabled, recording technology that transferred the images into the holographic images before me disengaged.

And, as an extra measure, Shuri is able to figure out how to lock the aliens out of their own network to prevent them from undoing what we just meddled with.

This kid is kind of scary. Glad she's on our side.

Casting a final glance at the aliens in a heap in the corner, I stride across the room, shrinking down and leaping up into the control panel. Right before I exit down on the other side, I sever what has to be the central line of power to the doors, essentially locking anyone in or out of that room.

"Okay guys," I say as I drop to the floor and begin sprinting back the way I came. "We're good to go."

 _"Nice work, Scott_ ," Natasha replies. " _Stay low. We're coming aboard_."

* * *

 **A/N: DUN DUN DUN**

 **So now you guys know! Thor's ship wasn't attacked by Thanos at the end of Thor: Ragnarok. They were attacked by the Dravek (bonus points to whoever looks up that word to find out what it means and it what language). What will this mean for our heroes? Are Thor and Heimdall dead? Still on the alien planet? Imprisoned on their ship? Guess you'll have to keep reading to find out. ;)**

 **Peter's atom joke was a reference to a moment in the comics where Spiderman was able to bring Hulk back to being Dr. Banner by simply telling him a knock knock joke. :)**

 **Sorry for the long wait! I am SO pleased to inform you though, that I finished the first draft of my novel! 299 pages, nearly 150,000 words, all raw and ready for serious bouts of editing! I am beyond excited and proud of it, and I can't wait to see where it goes. For those of you who are interested, the title is Raven Rising, and it's the first book in a trilogy I am writing and hope to get published! Definitely a dark, YA fantasy novel whose heroine is comparable to how I write Wanda, if I had to pick the closest comparison. ;) For more updates and artwork on that and in general, you can follow me on instagram. My insta name is mscrystalbeard :)**

 **Ahhhh yes, and SO sorry about the little cliffie where I let Peter run off by himself into the dark against four alien hunters in a ridiculously self sacrificing maneuver. I tried to stop him. Really, I did. But you know him. ;) Hey, at least Bucky is safe and out of the woods with that wound of his!**

 **Scott! I loved Ant-man and the Wasp, so was really excited to write Scott again! A few of you forgot that he was one of the non-powered Avengers on the rescue mission. He's been there the whole time. lol. Remember the ice cream discussion a few chapters back? Yeah, that was him. Clearly he wasn't getting enough screen time, so this chapter was needed. lol**

 **Special thanks as always to the world's greatest beta, PippinStrange, who is hard at work on her own Avengers fic, Where They Go, an aftermath of Infinity War focused on Peter Parker, and holy CRAP is it amazing. She depicts all the characters so freaking well, and this story is action packed, hilarious, full of all the feels, and a seriously plausible imagining on what might have happened to those who were killed by Thanos's snap of doom. HIGHLY RECOMMEND**

* * *

SummerMistedDragon: Because I can :D

Heroes21: Hope you liked!

Puppens101: Yay for Bucky being alright, right? lol, it's something! More answers about what happened to Thor soon!

sparklydog9 THOR!

StarStepper: I don't know! Because I'm mean and I have issues. lol. Thank you so much! :D And also sorry. lol

AppleSpongeCake: I know! I'm sorry! Too long of a wait!

cargumentluv: Thanks! so happy to hear that!

kittymyth96: :D

Seawell: Yay Thor! Love throwing surprises at you guys. :) And it's true, people do crazy things to survive, but luckily Peter didn't have to find out exactly how far he'd go just yet ;)

missgemmaaa: Awww thank you! That is so sweet of you!

LoonyLovegood1981: Gosh me too! And thanks so much! I definitely recommend Thor Ragnarok. It's hilarious and my favorite of the Thor movies for sure

DarylDixon'sLover: ah you know me. lol

AltoOwl: Thanks so much! Will try to do a quicker update next time!

twylght: Thank you! I agree that going old school is probably a good exercise for Peter, although poor kid could really use the upgrades in this life or death situation

Kairianna864: Thank you very much! Excited to tie in Ragnarok with this fic!

Guest: Thank you very much! It was fun doing an underwater scene, hadn't done one of those yet! Hope you likes this chapter too and that it answered a couple questions!

Guest: Ah thank you! Thanks very much!

Kirby Lane: Ok first off, adored that you referred to me as "her majesty". Literally the best. Second, my HEART! Thank you SO SO much. I try to get better and better as I write and put a lot of thought into the plot and characters and everything, so I sincerely appreciate your kind words. WOW. I absolutely did NOT mind the long review. It was glorious to read and made my heart so very happy. Truly, thank you for taking the time to leave me your thoughts. Made my month!

KiernanCo: Peter's heart is DEFINITELY bigger than his brain. Poor kid. Lol

GinaBoo: Yep! A couple of semi-chill chapters to prepare for what's coming up :D THings are definitely starting to pick up pace for sure! Glad you're enjoying it! AND YES THAT MID CREDITS SCENE OMG

screechyfangirl: I am. And proud of it :D

Shadow-wolf78: Thanks!

gandalf537: Thank you sooooo much! :D Shuri is definitely a blessing, and I'm so glad you enjoyed Bruce's POV! I really surprised myself by how much I enjoyed writing from his perspective. SUper fun!

Shoyzz: Definitely a great sequel! And lots of answers to come!

Guest: X-men would be sick. As would Deadpool. lol. But I have too big of a cast to handle without adding in TOO many more. I'd probably go crazy. lol

Andy Frost: Ant-man! Wooh!

Jeyfeather1234: Lol! I'd say no, they're usually not. XD

Leiah Cloud: Thank you SO much! I always appreciate it when anyone takes the time to review. I do spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking about this story and these characters, so when it's noticed it make me SO happy. Truly, thank you! And Peter's suit at this point is basically just spandex, droney, changing lenses, and web-shooters. lol. So when he dived in after the alien, he just shoved his mask up above his nose and held his breath and came out soaking wet. lol :)

smolpeter: Wow! Thank you so very much!

* * *

 **COMING UP**

 **Chapter Thirteen: Devil's Right Hand**

 **Natasha, Shuri, and Okoye board the alien craft and make some grim discoveries. Steve, on his own in the alien jungle and on the search for Dr. Banner, receives the shock of his life that he never saw coming. Peter flees for his life and takes on four alien hunters in the most intense segment yet.**

 **Guys, you're gonna wanna get your popcorn for this one.**

 **Also, you're welcome in advance.**

 **Also, I'm SO SORRY in advance.**

 **I'll let you guys think that over. :D Much love!**


	13. Devil's Right Hand

**Chapter Thirteen: Devil's Right Hand**

* * *

 **Natasha Romanov**

...

...

Okoye and I remain in a tight formation, Shuri both between and behind us as we move cautiously down the halls of the alien ship, weapons drawn and ready. The princess is very much displeased by what she hissed as our "coddling" and "overprotective" behavior, but Okoye and I aren't taking any chances with the young royal stowaway.

We move in silence, reading each other's body language and expressions as if we've been working together for years, me taking the lead each time the hall turns or intersects to check for hostiles before motioning for the others to follow.

Thus far, the ship has proven nearly empty.

I am beginning to suspect that Clint was right, that nearly the entire craft's crew and captives have descended to the planet below, perhaps only a handful of officers stationed to man the ship left behind.

But none of us are leaving until we confirm that our friends are no longer here.

Heavy footsteps clang on the metal grating, the sound echoing down the hall, vibrating in the soles of my leather tactical boots. I immediately draw back, guns raised, darting for the door to my left.

At my proximity, the door slides open with a near silent hiss, and the three of us duck inside, Okoye at the rear, spear aimed at the hallway as my eyes scan the almost pitch black room for signs of life.

None.

The door slides shut, and we wait in the darkness, as those footsteps stride past us, Shuri letting out a small sigh of relief when the sounds fade away. I take a half step further into the room, and it comes to life, red light flickering in thin rivulets across the walls, glaring down from a circular structure in the ceiling.

My stomach plummets.

Thin tables with metal cuffs, two servers embedded into the floor, projecting crimson holographic images above them, and a counter laden with all manner of weapons, machinery, and instruments.

A laboratory, or perhaps their version of a med bay.

"My god," Okoye murmurs, horrified, and I follow her gaze to one of the tables bearing straps and cuffs.

To the dark stain marring its shiny surface.

"Is that-" Shuri goes to take a step closer, and Okoye's arm shoots up, barring her path.

"Blood," I confirm grimly, striding forward to the table. Taking a small digital scanner from one of the pouches at my belt, I raise the instrument to hover centimeters above the stain, long since dried.

A tiny blue light emits from it, scanning the mottled spots with a wide beam. The light shuts off abruptly as it finishes, the data running sequentially on the narrow monitor as it runs the composition through Stark's database to identify exactly what it is.

Although I know I should be asking exactly _whose_ it is.

The images race unbidden through my mind. Wanda, Barnes, Steve, Bruce, Peter, all strapped down to tables like this one, at the mercy of the equipment around me, wielded by the creatures who took them.

All I know for certain is that it can't be Vision's. Androids don't bleed.

I take some comfort in the knowledge that the amount of blood on this table is too little to have been fatal.

It's something.

 _Please_ , I find myself thinking as I stare down at the loading data. _Please_.

I don't know who or what exactly I am pleading for.

A soft beep, and the name flashes across the top of the screen, followed swiftly by hundreds of details pertaining to their blood.

Peter Benjamin Parker.

Aw hell, kid. What did they do to you?

"Whose is it?" murmurs Okoye behind me, her voice soft with concern.

I turn to look at her, at Shuri's wide eyes, and then I shove the scanner back into my belt. "Peter Parker's," I reply tightly, trying and failing to hide the worry in my eyes. "Spiderman."

"Is he-?" Shuri cuts herself off abruptly, as if she's too afraid to finish.

"No. Not from this, anyways. Not enough blood."

I don't say that they very well could have killed him afterwards without spilling a drop. I don't say it, because I can't even bear to think it. God, I'm going to have to tell Stark.

"Let's move," Okoye takes command. "We will find no more answers here."

I nod, letting the general take point, placing a hand on the princess's shoulder to steer her from the room, her brown eyes staring at the table for a moment longer before she turns away.

" _Heading for level seven,_ " Scott's voice sounds off in my earpiece. _"Looks like they have holding cells up there."_

"We're two floors below you," I murmur softly back. "Moving for the command center. Let us know what you find."

The three of us make our way through the maze of dimly lit corridors, keeping Shuri between us, ducking into alcoves or rooms whenever we encounter another one of the aliens.

On one such occasion, as we slip into an extra wide door, I turn and find black and red eyes inches away from my own. I bring my guns up, fingers squeezing on the triggers, but a massive, clawed hand seizes me by the front of my uniform and slams me into the wall so fast, so hard, my grip on my weapons slackens, and they clatter to the floor.

I bring my legs up, wrapping them around the alien's arm that's pinning me as I clamp my hands around its wrist in the same moment, wrenching my body in two different directions that has the alien's wrist snapping.

It shrieks, the sound animalistic, layered beneath its mask as sounds of a fight echo behind me in the hall. The alien jerks away, and I drop to the ground.

It draws a spear from its back with its uninjured hand, lunging for me.

It stops, stumbling backwards and arching its back, hissing, and as I look up at it, brows furrowing, I spot the Wakandan princess emerging over its shoulder, face fierce, legs wrapped around its middle as she unsheathes the alien's second spear and drives it into its back.

The alien lets out a choked roar, thrashing so hard, Shuri drops to the ground. It whirls, advancing on her, staggering with the spear still embedded beneath its armored shoulder blade. I'm on my feet, gripping that spear and gritting my teeth as I yank it sharply out. Another shriek of agony before I thrust the spear into its throat, cutting off the sound abruptly and sending the alien crashing to the ground.

I reach out a hand, and Shuri takes it, getting to her feet as Okoye enters the room, black blood splattering her face and Wakandan spear.

"Are you alright?" she demands, her sharp eyes boring into the teenager, who nods.

"I'm fine."

"Not just an inventor," I comment, arching a brow.

Shuri grins. "Surprised?"

"Not in the slightest."

I turn to Okoye, about to suggest we drag the second body in the hall to this room to hide it, but the Wakandan general's face has gone slack, her gaze looking past me into the room.

Frowning, I turn, and as I do so, a horrific chill starts at the top of my scalp and scurries its way down my back.

We have found ourselves in a massive hall, arched ceilings of black stone above us, a stained, grated floor beneath us. And running along the walls, in cases, on plaques and shelves, strewn on tables or hung from the ceiling… are trophies.

No gold, no silver or bronze to be found here.

These are war trophies, _hunting_ trophies.

Clenching my jaw, I move further into the room, my movements slow, deliberate, eyes scanning over every inch of this place. The horror of it encasing me like a second, icy skin.

Heads mounted on the wall, different species, races, some more human than others, all watching me with the same glassy eyes...all manner of weapons ranging from primitive, to technologically advanced to maybe even magical in origin; scepters, guns, bombs, sleek, circular blades, warhammers...armor and limbs and horns and pieces…

The answers are here in this grim hall of death, more despicable than any of the scenarios my brain had conjured; the aliens' motives, who they are, why they took our teammates and left us behind.

They're hunters, going from planet to planet like a plague, taking their strongest defenders, and then hunting them down like the intergalactic predators they are.

The others aren't here. They're down below on that planet, fighting for their lives as they are hunted down by some of the worst monsters in the universe. And we need to get down there now. We need to send word to Stark and his landing party telling them what we know, warning them what to expect. We need to-

Okoye has moved past me deeper into the room, and I see her rigid back, all of her muscles tensed and trembling as she stares at something I can't see.

Brows knitting together, I move to her side, and then I understand.

A uniform is pinned to the jagged stone of the wall, slashed and stained with blood. It's old, the familiar colors faded, the design altered, but very similar to the one Okoye herself wears. A Wakandan uniform, belonging to one of the Dora Milaje that was stolen from Earth fifty years ago.

Okoye's dark eyes are burning as they bore into it, her knuckles white from the grip on the staff in her trembling hand. Tears roll silently down her cheeks, her full lips quivering from the horror, the grief, the rage at the injustice her people suffered.

It could have belonged to her aunt. There's no way of knowing for sure, but I don't think it would have mattered. This belonged to one of her people, the dark stains and torn fabric telling a story to horrific to imagine. This is proof of their fate, the fate of her mother's sister.

"They," she starts in a low voice, the words biting and beyond furious. "Will suffer for this. I will make sure of it."

I catch sight of Shuri's grim face behind Okoye's shoulder. " _We_ will," she corrects, voice shaking. "They will regret ever setting foot in Wakanda."

"We need to move," I say reluctantly, turning from the garish display. "Get to the command center, contact the others."

 _"Holding cells are empty,_ " Scott informs me. " _Heading to you guys."_

"Copy that," I reply, my voice more hoarse than I intended it to be. "Meet you at command. Be prepared for trouble."

 _"Always am."_

I take a breath to collect myself, watching the fury building within the Wakandans, fury that they will hone into a force so destructive, I won't dare be standing in their way when it unleashes.

I step away, giving them their space as I lift my wrist, twisting one of the black Kimoyo beads resting there, and the Wakandan runes light up as an incredibly life-like, holographic bust of Tony Stark hovers above it.

He frowns at me. "My god this tech is weird. Your head is floating above my arm."

"How far are you from the planet's surface?"

"Just broke through the atmosphere. Why? You got a better landing point for us?"

"Not yet, but we will when we breach the command center."

"So you're calling because you miss me?"

"I'm calling to give you a heads up on what to expect down there," I reply, casting a glance over at Shuri, who has placed a hand on Okoye's shoulder. My face is grim, my voice low and quiet as I turn back to Stark. "These guys are predators, Tony. The track you down, murder you, and take trophies kind. And they've been doing this for hundreds of years."

His eyes sharpen. "Are you telling me our people are being hunted down like prized elk?"

"Elk have it better. Something tells me these aliens have a lot less mercy and a lot more savagery when it comes to hunting," I frown, my eyes roaming over the damaged weapons, the torned, stained armors and suits.

"I guess it just turned into open season then," Stark says darkly. "And I'm a mean shot."

"Tony, there's something else."

A pause. "What?"

"We found blood in one of their medical bays, not enough to be a lethal amount, but-"

"Whose?"

I nearly wince at the deceptively calm way he asks. "It's Peter's."

Tony's eyes fall shut, his jaw clenching as he sucks in a breath through his nose, letting it out in a sharp sigh. I can tell that was the answer he was expecting and the one he was most dreading.

I should have made Scott tell him when we got to command.

"There's no reason to think he isn't still alive," I assure him. "They wouldn't take him from Earth to kill him on their ship, not when they could hunt him."

"Thank you, Romanov. Knowing that the fifteen year old I am responsible for is running for his life in an alien jungle being hunted down like a goddamn animal is much more reassuring."

"It should be. If he's running, then he's still breathing."

Tony glares up at me. "Get me a damn location."

And then he's gone.

* * *

 **Steve Rogers **

I find tracks near the stream rushing down the mountainside.

Though night has fallen, the red lights of the plant life illuminate my way, my eyes adjusting to the darkness. The brush and foliage are too dense to make out who the tracks could belong to, but there's a path cutting through some of the larger, thicker bushes, where someone or several someones trampled their way through.

I know immediately it can't be the aliens, the signs marking the trees and plant life not tall enough. I also don't think they would be this careless.

The kind of carelessness that maybe, _hopefully_ , Banner would leave in his wake.

I follow it, my thoughts circling back to Wanda and Vision, Bucky, Peter, Bruce. I feel all their lives like they are piled up on my back. Some captain I am. Three of my teammates are still missing, maybe injured or dead, one is shot, and the other is frantically working to keep him alive.

I've let this happen, but damn it, nothing else is happening on my watch. I'm going to find the others, bring them back, and save Vision. Then I'm getting us all the hell out of here.

The tracks become a little harder to follow, enough so that I have to actively look for signs of someone passing through, the indentation in the damp soil, the crushed stalk of a tropical reed, a snapped branch at head level.

I move deeper into the jungle, the ground beneath me sloping sharply up, the trees growing denser, but thinner as I go.

Then the signs stop completely.

I double back, pick up the trail only to lose it in the same spot, even the most subtle of clues vanishing abruptly as if whoever had made it had simply faded out of existence. Captured, maybe? Or…

Or this is a trap, set for someone who might follow such signs to help out an ally or to hunt an enemy down, a trick of clues leading up to a narrow spot, perfect for an ambush.

The moment the thought comes to me, I feel the prick of something sharp pressing against the base of my neck, sinking hard enough that a sting erupts across my skin, and a trickle of wet warmth slides down to hit the collar of my suit.

Slowly, I raise my hands up in surrender, staring grimly out at the black and red jungle before me.

Damn it, Rogers. You let yourself fall into a trap.

My muscles stiffen as I prepare to move, ready to spin and seize my shield in the same moment, but suddenly, the weight of my shield is gone as it is torn from the holster on my back.

"Well, well, well. I have to say, I am surprised to see you here, Captain."

My brows furrow, every cell in my body going rigid at that voice.

"Are you surprised to see me?"

The pressure at the back of my neck vanishes, and as I whip my head to the side, I see him, striding out from behind me, dagger still aimed in my direction, my shield held carelessly in his free hand, a familiar smirk etched into his face. Red light from the jungle plants cast him in a wicked glow.

"Ah, your expression gives it away. You _are_ surprised," Loki grins. "I have to say, of all the beings I expected to fall for that trap, you weren't one of them."

"How are you here?" I demand, so shocked I can barely think.

He gives me a quizzical look, his lips still curved with amusement. "I thought that part was painfully clear. Or did your monster not include me in his tale?"

"You'd better start making sense, before I-"

"Before you what?" Loki arches a brow. "I have your precious shield. You're unarmed, within the trap that I myself have laid, and completely at my mercy. What could you possibly do?"

He's still talking when I activate the powerful magnet installed in the holster encircling my left arm, and the shield is ripped from his hand. Loki stumbles forward, eyes widening as I jump into the air, spinning as I catch the shield and throwing it hard the moment my feet hit the ground.

Loki makes a choked sound in the back of his throat as he dodges it, ducking just in time as it sails past him to embed itself into a tree with a sharp thunk, and as he straightens, smirking, I slam my fist into his face.

He crashes to the ground, blood spurting from his nose onto his pale skin as I activate the magnet again, securing my shield to my arm as it flies back to me.

"That," I finally answer. "I could do that."

I tower over him, and he begins scooting back through the plants, that goddamn smirk finally gone from his face. "Next time you're threatening someone, don't take your knife from their neck."

"Duly noted," he says, then in a flash of movement, flings his dagger straight for me, the metal glinting in a beam of crimson light. I shift to the side, dodging it, and when I look down at him, he's gone.

Straightening, I see that there are now six Lokis in the shadows amongst the trees around me, grinning as he holds up his hands as if to say, what did you expect?

"There's something different about you," he muses, all six of him beginning to circle. "Something much darker than the righteous, spangled Steve Rogers I encountered all those years ago."

"You'd know all about darker, wouldn't you?"

"I'm the God of Mischief, not darkness."

"So murdering hundreds of innocent people is your idea of mischievous?" I shoot back, fists clenching.

He smirks again, opening his mouth to speak when-

"Enough, Loki."

My gaze snaps in the direction of the unfamiliar, deep voice to stare at the dark skinned man emerging from the trees, eyes glowing amber, a massive sword slung across his back. Another hostile? Has to be if he's working with Loki.

"Steve Rogers," the man says, walking straight through one of Loki's apparitions to extend a hand.

I raise an eyebrow. "And you are?'"

"Forgive me. I am Heimdall, Watcher of the Worlds, or I was before the destruction of Asgard. Now I am simply a servant to the crown. I have seen many of your triumphs and trials on Midgard."

My eyes flick to Loki, leaning against a tree with his arms folded across his chest as the last of his doubles fade to nothing. If Asgard was destroyed, I can guess who was behind that, and if this man claiming to be a god has called himself king, then I am surrounded by enemies.

I look back at Heimdall. Enemies who've been watching me.

"Steve?"

I whirl at the third voice. " _Thor_?"

Not the Thor I remember, with short hair, makeshift eyepatch, and sans hammer, but the massive man standing there is undoubtedly him.

"Steve!" Thor lets out a laugh, arms thrown wide as his strides eat up the distance between us, and he wraps me up in a bear of a hug, slapping my back for good measure.

I let out a breathy laugh of my own, confused as hell, but genuinely glad to see a friendly face after everything that's happened. Thor releases me, stepping back, a grin stretched across his face, wrinkling the skin around his eyepatch.

"It is good to see you, my friend!" he exclaims, clamping his hands on my shoulders. "The beard suits you, nearly as much as mine does me."

I'm not even given a chance to ask one of the billion questions racing through my head.

"Now," he says, clapping his hands together and looking around. "Where is Banner?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out."

Thor frowns. "You lost Banner?"

"I didn't-"

"He can't be far. Where is Stark and your ship?"

"Ship?"

"Yes of course. You did come here on a ship, did you not?"

"I did," I eye him strangely. "But we weren't on it long before we were gassed and thrown into the jungle."

Thor stares at me with his single eye, uncomprehending.

Loki lets out a derisive laugh. "This is just too perfect," he says, pushing off the tree. "Sending your beast off on a rescue mission to get aid from Earth's Mightiest Heroes is going spectacularly, brother."

"Loki-" Thor warns, but Loki keeps going.

"Thank the All Fathers, we are saved," he proclaims dramatically, his expression seething. "Look at where you placed your precious hope, straight into their incompetent hands."

It clicks. "The ship that attacked you, it was the same one that attacked us on Earth."

"Did Banner not tell you what happened?" Thor frowns as I turn back to him.

"Bruce hit his head so hard there's a crater in Kentucky the size of a shopping mall," I reply. "Woke up with no idea how he got there. He knew your ship was attacked, but beyond that…"

I watch Thor's expression change, becoming grim and resigned before it shifts into something more calculating. "So the Dravec came for Earth next as I feared. You are not part of a rescue mission, but in need of one yourself. How many of you are here?" he asks.

"Six including me. Vision, Wanda, Bruce, Bucky, and Peter."

"I do not know this Bucky...or Peter. Are they enhanced?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes. How many of there are you?" I ask, turning my attention back to Loki and Heimdall.

"Just the three of us," Thor replies, his voice heavy. "Any others either fled in the escape pods or were killed here on this planet."

I look at him, registering that the patch covering his eye is made of leather from his own armor, his skin covered in sweat and dirt and bruises. I shake my head, millions of questions rattling around my brain, and I finally ask. "What happened to you? What happened to your eye? Your world? Why is he," I point at Loki. "not locked up in a prison where he belongs?"

Loki eyes me, his lips curving on one side as he wipes away at the dried flecks of blood from his nose. "Go on, brother. Tell him."

"It is a long tale," Thor sighs. "But Loki is...a changed man. He fought alongside us against our sister, the Goddess of Death, and helped save our people."

Sister. Goddess of Death. Asgard's destruction…

I'm not even going to touch that right now.

"A changed man," I repeat doubtfully, glancing over at him. Sure, and pigs can fly. "Thor, you know what he's done-"

"I do. And I'm not excusing any of it," he sends a glare towards his brother. "But he has proven where his heart lies, and right now, if we are going to survive this, we have no choice but to stick together."

I don't like it. I don't like that gleam in his eyes, and I could never trust a man who had willingly slaughtered innocents, who would have enslaved billions beneath his will. But Thor has a point. Whether I like it or not, Loki could be an asset in this situation, even if it's just as a way to slow the alien hunters down so that the rest of my team can make it out of here.

"How did you survive this long?"

Thor looks affronted. "Through great feats of strength and cunning. It takes a lot more than a couple hundred Dravec hunters to bring down the mighty Thor."

"You were stabbed on the second night," Heimdall points out.

"Yes...well...point is, I'm still alive, so…"

"You don't look stabbed," I remark. He doesn't hold himself like he's nursing an injury.

"When a powerful Asgardian such as myself is gravely injured, we can enter a deeply meditative state to enhance our healing," Thor explains. "I was unconscious for three days."

"How did you manage to avoid the hunters?" I look to Heimdall.

"I kept him hidden," Loki raises his chin. "Kept him safe from being discovered while his body was in such a state of fragility."

Thor glares at him. "That is a lie."

"I saved your life."

"You buried me alive!" Thor snaps, and the corners of Loki's lips curve almost imperceptibly up.

"Which kept you out of the clutches of the Dravec," he insists, his face the picture of innocence, though every single one of us knows better. "You're welcome."

"We've lingered out in the open too long," Heimdall remarks, his strange, glowing eyes searching the jungle around us. "And we haven't been nearly as cautious as we should have."

"Vision's hurt," I tell Thor, fresh worry surging through my chest. I've been gone too long. "Wanda's done what she could, but I need to find Bruce. It's bad."

Thor straightens. "I will aid you in your search. Heimdall and Loki can helpWanda with Vision until our return."

I stiffen, the word no on my lips.

Wanda can take care of herself, and with that power burning inside her, I believe that she could take both Asgardians with her eyes shut. But Loki is a murderer, and Heimdall is a stranger.

"I will vouch for them, my friend," Thor places a hand on my shoulder. "No harm will befall Wanda or Vision, on my honor."

"It's not your honor I'm questioning."

Loki has enough sense to keep a neutral expression on his face, knowing better than to test me on this. I may not be a god, but if it came down to it, I could make sure he never leaves this jungle alive, Thor's brother or no.

Finally I nod, seeing no other options, and then I look to Heimdall. "They're sheltering in a hollowed out log about fifteen miles east of here."

"If anyone can find them, Heimdall can," Thor assures me. "Now come, we have a hunt of our own."

* * *

 **Peter Parker**

BLAM!

Heart in my throat, I drop to the ground, a wave of heat and searing light blazing over my back.

Crap, that was close.

I scramble to my feet, firing a web up towards a branch of a tree, retracting it into the shooter on my wrist and shooting up into the air. The moment my feet hit the branch I'm leaping for another, the whine and crack of another energy blast sounding off. Seconds later the branches behind me splinter apart, shards of wood slapping against my back as I swing for another tree.

It was too much to hope for that the four aliens, ( _Dalek? No, that's from Dr. Who, you idiot. Dravec! That's what Dr. Banner called them_ ), would only have the daggers embedded in their forearms.

No. These ones are armed to the teeth, including plasma rifles that should only belong on old games like Halo 3.

I swing higher, leaping from branch to branch, hoping to disappear within the thick, glossy leaves of the jungle canopy. It feels like I've been running forever, deeper into the jungle, farther back down the mountain, but the four hunters pursue me tirelessly.

A massive stitch in my side makes it hard to breathe, my lungs and legs and arms burning from the strain of so much violent movement in so short a time with little rest or food or water.

"Come _on_ ," I hiss, throwing myself to the right behind the wide trunk as two more blasts shatter the branches around me.

I don't know how much longer I can keep this up, but I have no choice. I slow down or stop moving, and I die. Pretty good motivation to keep running. At least I know I have led all four of them away from Bucky and Dr. Banner, that I've given them a chance.

Oh man, the looks on their faces. Dr. Banner's, white with panic when he realized what I planned to do, the sharp fury on Bucky's…

If the Dravec don't kill me, Bucky definitely will.

Warning blares like clanging church bells through my body, but I don't move fast enough. A sharp whine fills the air, and a searing heat rips across the outside of my left arm as I throw myself to the side.

I cry out in pain, at the burn radiating through my body, the force of the blast violent enough that my feet slip on the next branch I land on, and I fall forward head first. I try to right myself midair, but my side connects with a wide bough, the impact driving the air from my lungs and sending pain reverberating across my ribs.

Before my body can slide off the branch, my hands shoot out to seize it, pulling myself up with more effort than I care to admit.

 _Come on, Parker, you have to MOVE!_

More blasts fill the air, but I'm already moving, one hand briefly pressing against my aching ribs before I fire off another web. Instead of swinging forward, I swing around a massive tree, taking me out of sight for a moment.

I make a quick decision as I disappear behind the curve of the trunk, dropping to the ground and diving left in a huge entanglement of man-sized roots. Scrambling inside, I crawl as fast as I can through the tight maze of arching, twisting roots until I am as deep inside as I can manage.

I tuck myself into a tight ball, clamping my hands over my masked mouth to stifle my heavy breathing, switching my lenses to thermal as my wide eyes dart to all the gaps in the roots, where I can see the dark jungle beyond.

 _Please work, please work, please work!_

My heart is beating so rapidly in my chest I can't even make out the rhythm of it, my sides throbbing in time to my galloping pulse.

I feel like the rabbit, cornered in its burrow by foxes. Hadn't MJ said in Biology once that rabbits can get so worked up their hearts would burst?

Mine is so _very_ close to bursting.

Racing footsteps, snapping branches, hissing breaths, thundering in my ears, competing with the hammering of my heart.

I'm a rabbit-I'm a rabbit-I'm a rabbit-

The footsteps stop, and a tightly coiled silence descends.

My eyes dart back and forth beneath my lenses, shakily switching to night vision as I hold my breath and wait. I fully expect to see a pair of eyes suddenly staring back at me between the gaps of the maze of roots, or the boot of an alien as it discovers my hiding spot. My ears and eyes are straining, my muscles so tense they are nearly vibrating.

Silence...quiet…

Nothing…

Did...did I really lose them? Are they gone? Did my idiotic plan _actually_ work?

Slowly, my pulse begins to drift somewhere back to a normal pace, albeit still pretty elevated, and my muscles relax just enough to take the edge off.

I let my hands drop from my mouth, but I don't let out a sigh of relief yet, not with how quiet the jungle still is.

God, I'd really let myself freak out there for a minute.

I mean, I think anyone would start to lose it in these circumstances, but still. I'm a rabbit? Really? That's where my mind instinctually went? I grit my teeth, tempted to roll my eyes in disgust at myself.

Get it _together_ , Peter.

If you're a rabbit, you're that terrifying, bloodthirsty one from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Yeah, there we go!

Look out world, I'm a rabbit. I'm _that_ rabbit.

Bolstered by my thoughts, I shift forward, placing my hands on the damp earth to peer out one of the holes into the jungle.

I jerk back with a strangled cry as a dagger thrusts through the gap towards my face, my head slamming against the trunk of the tree. The dagger is yanked back, and I throw myself down, scrambling under and over roots as fast as I can.

Behind me, small explosions erupt, heat blooming across my back, light illuminating my night vision almost to the point of blindness as chunks and splinters of wood rain down on me. I flatten myself to the ground, covering my head as another explosion tears through the roots in front of me.

My spidey senses are going haywire, danger coming from every direction, but a sharp flare of it comes from directly behind me just before a hand wraps around my ankle and yanks.

Fear and adrenaline surge through me in tandem, sharpening my senses, and before I can even begin to think of what to do, my body instinctively acts for me. I go limp, letting the alien hunter drag me harshly from the smoldering remains of my hiding place, and the moment I am clear of the debris, I move.

Rolling onto my back, I take less than a second to register the alien hunter leaning over me, my ankle in one hand, unsheathed dagger beneath its other. Then I kick up with my free leg, my foot impacting with the outside of its wrist and driving it towards its chest.

The alien's eyes widen, a hoarse inhale of breath muffled by its mask as it releases me, staggering back with the hand I just kicked still pressed against its chest.

That's when I realize that the Dravec's wrist dagger is embedded there.

Oh my god.

I'd stabbed it.

A horrifying chill stabs across my body like thousands of needles, my stomach lurching as I register just what I did. The alien stumbles back, tripping over a chunk of burning tree root to fall to its back, its chest heaving as it reaches for its wrist with its free hand.

There's not even time for me to flip the hell out, because there are two more hunters surging for me, the fourth and final one nowhere in sight.

I roll, narrowly avoiding an energy blast from a gun, leaping to my feet only to backflip up into the air, dodging a second, a third, a fourth blast as I land sideways in a crouch against the trunk of the tree only to kick off of it and dive back to the ground.

My hands shoot up to grip the base of the blade as a spear jabs for my shoulder, my muscles tensing as I push back with all my might, the force of the alien's strength forcing me to stumble away until my back is against the tree. I grit my teeth, my arms shaking with the force of holding the spear away from my body, the Dravec's eyes narrowing as its shoulders tense, prepared to give a mighty shove.

The moment it moves, I do too, releasing my grip on the spear and spinning to my left. Pain rips across my upper right arm, but the spear embeds itself into the tree where I just stood, and I'm leaping into the air. My feet land on the spear's handle, the metal bending beneath my weight before surging up, sending my body with it, and I use the momentum to deliver a spinning kick straight into the alien's face.

I land on the ground in a crouch, chest heaving, heart pounding wildly as the Dravec flies back, crashing through the bushes.

Warning crashes through the base of my neck, and I straighten in a flash, my hands shooting up as a black chain is thrust over my head, yanking back when it reaches my neck. I grab it with both hands, my palms the only thing preventing me from being strangled as weight presses against my back.

What the hell?! Why did these aliens get all the upgraded weapons?! The spears and built in daggers were bad enough!

I cry out through clenched teeth, choking at the pressure of my hands digging into my windpipe, my palms burning as the metal chain links press into the material of my suit.

The Dravec hisses in my ear, its armored chest hard and unyielding against my back.

My eyes lift, widening as the alien I'd kicked stalks for me, both of its wrist blades unsheathed, its eyes glowering.

Oh god.

Blades raising, surging, too close, too _close-_

I tighten my grip on the chain, using all my strength to bend forward, then slam back, letting my weight fall against the alien holding me, moving with its momentum as it pulls back on the chain at my throat. In the same moment, I draw my legs up to my chest, the Dravec's back arching, lifting me higher off my feet.

The thrusting daggers miss me by inches, stabbing just underneath my back, and then both of my feet slam into the second alien's face, sending it flying back a second time.

Then the Dravec holding me is bowing forward, overcompensating as it tries to right itself, and, hands still gripping the chain around my neck, I let my feet hit the ground, my body bending forward and sending the hunter soaring over my back.

It flips over me, landing hard on the ground as I stumble away, gasping in a large breath as the pressure against my throat is finally, _finally_ lifted.

I shift into a defensive stance, raising my webshooters as both of the aliens push to their feet, fury written in their eyes.

But I forgot something.

I forgot about the fourth hunter.

BAM!

Pain erupts in the side of my face, shooting up my cheekbone, across my eye, into my skull, the hit sending my body crashing into the ground as my vision blurs with green and grey fuzzy spots.

I'm knocked senseless for a moment, my body going limp, my head going light as the bones of my face ache and throb and send stabbing bolts of pain into my brain. I gasp for air, trying to reorient myself, knowing I need to move, I need to get up, to run, to fight-

My mask is ripped from my head, a sharp prod of the spear rolling me onto my back.

I blink up, the world tilting, undulating around me with every throb of my skull. Without my night vision, the jungle is a mass of black and crimson, the majority of the light coming from the burning roots several yards away. Silhouetted against the light is the biggest alien hunter I have ever seen, the spines running down its back glinting and flickering.

I can't make out most of its features, not with my vision blurring, not with the darkness and the distant light wiping most of them out.

But I can see its eyes. I can see the blood red irises glowing dimly, emerging from the inky black like burning beacons.

A bitter, metallic taste floods my tongue, and I distantly register that the inside of my cheek is bleeding, the skin torn from the punch to my face. I swallow it down, my chest heaving with tight breaths, my heart raging in my chest as my overused muscles tremble uselessly.

The two remaining hunters join the one towering over me, weapons returned to their hands.

This is it, I realize with a sinking sensation, my body becoming impossibly heavy, like I am falling straight through the earth, even as my insides tighten, clench with indescribable panic.

They're going to kill me.

They're going to kill me and take my mask or my head as a souvenir.

I'm going to die here.

One of the smaller alien hunters steps forward, knife raised, ready to do the honors of finishing me off.

My fingers spasm, digging into the damp soil as I try to shove myself up with shaking arms, my head spinning, my body still trying to fight back even though my brain knows I am done for.

A heavy boot slams into my chest, driving the air from my lungs and pinning me back to the ground.

I wheeze, my eyes growing warm and wet as my fingers weakly scrabble at the boot of the massive Dravec who'd taken me down. "Please," I choke out through a mouthful of blood, the droplets spraying the dark metal. " _Don't-_ "

The smaller alien lunges for me, wrist knife raised, but in a flash of movement, the one pinning me shoots out its arm, seizing the other just beneath its blade. The smaller one hisses beneath its mask, but shrieks in pain when the larger Dravec's grip tightens painfully against its arm before shoving it away.

They begin to converse in their strange, sharp language, the one pinning me gesturing back towards the jungle, back towards the way we came, back towards the cave…toward Bucky and Dr. Banner…

Oh god.

Oh _no_.

The smaller aliens submit to the larger one, nodding their agreement as it steps off of me, striding back to the tree where I had tried to hide.

Trying to catch my breath, trying to convince my failing body to just _move_ , _damn it_ , I watch as it yanks the spear from the trunk of the tree, turning to the alien lying on the ground, the one I'd inadvertently stabbed.

It's still crumpled there, chest heaving, black blood pooling around it as it wheezes, raising a hand to its comrade in supplication.

The Dravec leader raises the spear and drives it into the alien's bleeding chest, twisting it sharply in a move so sudden, I barely register it.

I stare, blinking away the tears still streaming down my dirty, sweaty face.

It's dead. Its leader had just...just… _killed_ it.

I can't help the small stirrings of pity that wind their way in my chest, even though the alien had tried to kill me, even though it had probably killed before, even though I had played a part in its death.

I just keep seeing the shaking hand raising toward its leader, keep imagining the pleading in its eyes before the Dravec had shoved the spear into its chest.

I shouldn't feel sorry for it. I shouldn't.

But I do.

The Dravec leader stalks back towards me, tossing the spear carelessly to the ground. Its crimson eyes bore into mine, oozing satisfaction, victory, burning with bloodlust, with the thrill of the hunt.

I can see my fate in those eyes.

It isn't going to kill me. Not yet. Not when I can be used to draw out Dr. Banner and Bucky, or any other Avengers that can hear my screams when it tortures me.

Not when I am going to be bait.

I can see it in its eyes.

I'm going to wish that it had just killed me.

* * *

 **A/N: *Pietro Maximoff's voice*: You didn't see that coming?**

 **XD**

 **SO...lots to discuss. lol**

 **I wanna apologize for the long wait, and the long wait that will undoubtedly follow this update. I don't know if any of you have heard of the Carr fire that hit Northern California, but it's the seventh most devastating fire to ever hit our state, it's larger than Philadelphia, has destroyed nearly 900 homes, and killed six people. It's bad enough that the governor declared a state of emergency, and the president sent federal aid. That's my city, guys. Luckily, I am on the eastern side of the city away from the fire, but it got really terrifying there or awhile, and we've had three families who got evacuated come to stay with us, as well as three additional dogs, two cats, and a fish. For several days we stayed inside out of the horrendous smoke, glued to our phones for updates on evacuations and the fire that doubled in size every night. Our city has never been so devastated, and the fire, though the firefighters are finally making some progress on containing it, is still raging on. Really scary stuff. So many friends lost their homes, so we could really use all the prayers and good thoughts we can get over here! Thanks for being so understanding about the delay!**

 **Anyways back to the story!  
**

 **Thor! Loki! Heimdall! Wish granted, guys! They are alive and have officially entered the CMFU ;) OMG I LOVED WRITING THEM. SO FUN. I hope you guys enjoyed that scene, as I thoroughly enjoyed writing it! SO excited to bring them into the fic at last, as it's a scene I've been imagining for quite some time. Things are really starting to come together as we build to an epic climax of Aliens vs Avengers.**

 **For those of you who looked up the word dravec! Kudos, and thank god for google translate, amiright? I was not aware there were two translations, so that was a neat surprise! The translation that made me select the word dravec as the name for the alien race was "predator". I couldn't resist!**

 **And now you guys know why I apologized at the end of the last chapter. This cliffhanger is mean, I know. But, at least Thor and Loki are in the picture? That's something, right? Lol. Also longest chapter so far!**

* * *

DarylDixon'sLover: We shall see!

Twylght: Riddick would be sick! lol! No Riddick in this fic, but maybe a few extra Avengers will make him happy. Glad you guys are enjoying!

Heroes21: Lol, right?

Luckias: Nailed it! Thank you! :)

sparklydog9: I KNOW

Kirby Lane: EEEEE I LOVE when people list their favorite moments/lines. That makes me so happy. Thank you so so so much! Sorry about the addiction, I TOTALLY understand the frantic checking for updates. Been there! I'll do my best to get the next one out as soon as I can!

Jeyfeather1234: Happy belated birthday! Glad I could give you a present. :)

cargumentluv: LOL NO DONT DIE XD

Guest: :D

KiernanCo: Glad you loved Scott! I loved writing him. And your spider-baby didn't die! so yay! lol

LoonyLovegood1981: Thanks so much! Editing my book is going very well. :) Glad you liked the Hulk parts! That was a fun challenge to get into! Thank you!

Puppens101: YAY! So glad there is so much love!

Emily F.6: :D No problem! And yay for Thor being ok!

StarStepper: THanks so much! Yep Raven Rising! I can't wait to get it out to you guys. LOL VOLDEMORT. I thought the same thing when writing it. XD Thank you! Writing the Hulk was fun, and so was writing Thor and Heimdall and Loki! Glad no one saw that one coming!

PhoenixFlair13: Had NO idea that it also translated into Hindi! That's cool! I intended it to be the Slovak "predator" but that's cool too!

QuillandScroll: So interesting that it has two very different meanings!

Guest: Thank you! Loved writing him!

Krystal Fox: Yaaaaay! I love hearing that! :D

Thebookworm33: *tears* WOW. Thank you SO much. Like, your review put the biggest, goofiest smile on my face. Your review meant so much, and I'm so glad you felt what all the characters felt and that you love this series so much! I adore these characters, so it means a lot when you guys get invested in my rendition of them too!

Kairianna864: Right?! Someone needs to put a leash on that kid

GinaBoo: I know! Dang that self sacrificing idiot! LOL. Thank you so much! I was trying to think of a way to bring in the Thor crew while keeping Ragnarok in canon and without using Thanos, so this ended up working out perfectly! And yes, shit is about to hit the fan very shortly. XD

AppleSpongeCake: I am! :D Super excited about it. And yeah...I'm cruel and twisted. I'm aware. Mucho apologies!

kittymyth96: Thor and Heimdall are doing pretty good! Peter...yeah he's in for it a bit...:D

Guest: So far so good on the Bucky front! lol

Guest: Sorry about the delay!

Guest: I know! Darn that kid! And yay! I'll be sure to post on here if I ever get my book published! That would be the dream! I'm so glad you love this series, I love writing it, even while working on my own original work.

NCC-1701-Z: Ok, that would be SICK. Wish I had known the alternate translation, I would have totally worked that in! The Borg always freaked me out. So glad you are having fun and enjoying this series!

EleanorGardner: Glad you liked Scott's section! And I could post the synopsis for my book on the next author's note if you'd like :)

starfire25: Thanks!

gandalf537: OMG. Like, O.M.G. Thank you! I'll try and post more updates about my book on my instagram as I go! :) And I'm glad you liked the Hulk's POV! It was so fun and challenging! Ahhh I'm just so glad you are enjoying all the different parts and hope you enjoyed this chapter just as much!

Andy Frost: EEEEE I love that comment! ANytime anyone says it's like a movie, I get all the feels. MARVEL WHO. I died. I love Scott too, and I'm loving that everyone is slowly coming together! It's gonna be epic! And yes, the next fic is called Hunted, and you are not being punked. ;) It will be very different from this story, but things that happen here will come into play. Can't say more without giving it away, but I think you guys will like it.

Thebookworm33: AGAIN, because you left several reviews that made my heart so happy. OMG MY HEART THO. ALL THE FEELS THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH! *CRIES* I hope so badly to get my book published, and I will definitely let you guys know if I ever get there :D I also have always loved ravens. ANd I'm so glad you are so thoroughly enjoying the CMFU! I enjoy writing so much, I have since I was little and I probably always will. :) THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR AMAZING REVIEW AND FANGIRLING AND ENTHUSIASM. You're amazing and I love you. THank you for your support!

Shadow-wolf78: Thanks!

TeamCaptain2016: Ah thank you so much! I should go make a note on the end of Silent Night so people make sure to come here after. :) Thank you for all the reviews you left me! I also loved Scott's ice cream conversation. so fun to write. And a spinoff story of babysitting would be absolutely delightful. THANK YOU!

momocandy2: AH OMG THANK YOU! :D

Shoyzz: Thank you so much! And gaaaah I know I am so mean, and I keep making even meaner cliffhangers! And yay Scott! He's so much fun to write! Glad you are enjoying!

screechyfangirl: Ahhh sorry! :D :D :D :D

Guest: Sorry it took so long! lol!

The Striking Storms: Thanks so much! :)

GUest: THANK YOU! I'm so glad you're enjoying this series! I totally know what you mean. I wasn't as in love with alllll of these characters until I started writing them, and then I found a new appreciation and love for every single one of them by playing with them and putting them in my own little world. Also love big brother Bucky. It's so fun. AND YAY THOR! :D

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 **Guys the amount of reviews for the last chapter was unreal. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the support for my writing, this series, and my original novel I am hard at work on. I adore you guys, and I'm glad you love the CMFU as much as I do. :) Review Squad, you guys are out of this world.**

 **COMING UP**

 **Chapter Fourteen: Come in Stranger**

 **Wanda has some unexpected visitors, Tony and his team finally touch ground on the alien planet, ready to kick names and take ass, (XD), and Peter Parker finds himself in the clutches of the Dravec...but he might not be alone.**


	14. Come in Stranger

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Come in Stranger**

* * *

 **Wanda Maximoff**

 _Crack_.

I wake with a start, shooting up from where I had curled beside Vision within the hollowed out log. My eyes scan the dark jungle, the plant life caught in the moment between nightfall and morning, their red threads of light growing dimmer as the first dredges of sunlight seep through the canopy.

I wait, body tense, ears straining as I listen for more movement.

It could just be some kind of animal, could maybe be Steve returning with Bruce or one of the others. Or it could be one of the hunters, closing in on our hiding spot.

My fingers curl automatically, but I wait to call forth my power, counting on the darkness within the log to hide us. One of my hands goes to rest on Vision's chest protectively. I will not let anyone touch him.

Heart racing, I wait, and I listen.

"Wanda Maximoff?"

I go rigid at the sound of my name, coming from a deep, unfamiliar voice, and my heart begins to pound even faster. Not the alien hunters, unless they had technology to mimic our speech. But even if that were the case, how could they possibly know my name?

"We mean you no harm," the voice says again, softly, coaxingly, and from not too far away. "You or Vision."

They know us, they know where we are. I let my power surge to encase my hands, casting a brief look at the still sleeping Vision before I uncurl my legs and stand. Whoever they are, if they are lying, I will rip them apart before I let them come near him.

Feeling my power weaving around me, I cautiously move to the log's opening, my eyes searching the trees.

Two men stand there, one dark skinned with dreadlocks pulled away from his face, his eyes glowing gold, the hilt of a huge sword peeking over his back. The other is pale, dark haired, wearing all black and seemingly unarmed.

People. Actual people in this miserable place. Could it be?

My eyes go scarlet. "Who are you?" I demand, my voice low and deceptively soft.

Their eyes go to my hands, to the crimson energy pulsating around my fingers as I show them I am not to be taken lightly, as I show them that I am a threat.

"I am Heimdall, Watcher of Worlds, and this is Loki, brother of Thor," the warrior speaks first, watching me closely as he says the last few words, even as his companion gives him an irritated look. "We hail from Asgard."

A jolt goes through me. "Thor?"

He nods. "We are his friends, allies. We too, have been hunted by the Dravec on this planet, managing to evade them for weeks, killing when we can. Steve Rogers found us, and Thor has joined him in his search for Bruce Banner. They sent us to offer you and Vision aid."

It sounds too good to be true. My mind is reeling, never having expected to see another human face here in the jungle. It's jarring, like waking up from a dream, and to hear that Thor is here, that we are not alone on this planet…

If it's true, my heart will swell with so much hope it could burst.

If they are lying…

I clench my teeth, eyes flicking to the dark haired man, Loki. His head is tilted ever so slightly to the side, his face contemplative, curious as he stares back at me.

Loki of Asgard, brother of Thor. Leader of the attack on New York City all those years ago, when I was still young. The owner of the staff that reforged my brother and I with great power.

"I have heard of you," I tell him darkly. "I know what you have done."

His lips curve almost imperceptibly, as if he's pleased, but trying not to show it, and before he can utter a word, I stare deeper into his pale blue eyes and look into his mind.

It's different from reading the alien, even from reading men on Earth. Swaths of colors and images and sounds snake around my mind, skittish when I reach out for them, slithering away and leaving only the barest of glimpses behind.

But it's enough.

A moment later, he takes a stumbling step back, his face shocked and furious as he regains his ground, taking a few aggressive strides toward me. "How _dare_ you?"

I hold my ground, gazing cooly at him before dismissing him with a glance and turn back to Heimdall. The dark skinned man spreads his arms, palms raised. "Read away, if you must. I have nothing to hide."

I don't need to. I saw enough in Loki's mind, and I can feel the honor and truth emanating from Heimdall's words, from his very being.

They aren't lying. Thor is here in the jungle, helping Steve to find Bruce. We aren't alone anymore, and Vision-Vision actually stands a chance. Something in my chest twists, rises; relief and hope and caution. Caution, because you can never fully trust a hope, because life likes to dangle it in front of you before snatching it away.

"You're not alone," Heimdall says, his deep voice soothing over me, and I give him an odd look. It's like he was the one reading me. "Not anymore. May I take a look at your friend?"

His request is gentle, and though I instinctually bristle at the thought of a stranger going near him, I can read his intentions clear as day. He is a good man, an honorable one, and he genuinely seeks to help us.

There's a power there, one I can't name. It's in his eyes, in those bright, golden eyes, something that draws me, something that pierces through me as if my very soul is laid bare before him. Watcher of Worlds, he said. How long has he been watching?

Maybe those eyes can see what's wrong with Vision. Maybe he can show me how to use my powers to heal him, to fix him.

Finally, I nod, and he gives me a small smile. Taking a step out and away from the log, I let him go past me to Vision's side, but instead of following him, I turn back to Loki, who has drawn nearer, his eyes still angry, his face calculating.

"You will not do that again," he warns in a low, even voice. "Or you won't like the consequences. No one enters my mind without permission. I am a prince of Asgard, and I will be treated as such."

"I will do what I have to," I remark, sorting through the glimpses I got into his mind, through the stories Clint told me those long months we'd been locked in the raft. "If I recall correctly, you have never hesitated to invade and manipulate the minds of others."

Loki's eyes narrow. "That was in the past. Are you telling me you don't believe people can change?"

It's my turn to look at him sharply. How much does he know about me? How much has Thor told him? His lips begin to curve, eyes gleaming, and I know that I just gave myself away, that he'd made a gamble, and I'd walked right into it.

Bastard.

"I don't trust you," I say flatly. "I've seen enough to know that you're volatile. Fate is forcing us to become allies here, but if you so much as think of double crossing us, I will know."

Loki's eyes rake over my face, over the power I freely show him. "You are quite the weapon in Stark's arsenal, aren't you?"

Loki is trying to get under my skin again, to take back some of the power I'd took from him by delving into his mind without his consent. It's a good play, one that might have worked on me years ago.

"I am," I reply firmly, taking a step towards him. "And believe me when I say, you don't want to know what all I'm capable of."

Loki's eyes are glittering, a smile playing on the corners of his mouth, his voice nearly a purr as he murmurs, "Oh, I think I very much do."

Though it goes against all of my instincts, I turn my back on him, ducking inside the hollowed out log. When Loki makes to follow, I flick out a hand, a wall of crimson barring his path. Looking over my shoulder, I arch a brow and say, "Stay. Someone needs to keep watch."

Loki concedes, baring his teeth in a mockery of a smile, and I feel his calculating gaze on my back as I move further into the log to kneel by Vision opposite Heimdall.

Vision does not stir.

I look at Heimdall's worn face, at those golden eyes glowing brighter raking over Vision's wound. Hope is coiled so tightly in my chest, it could snap at any moment. It could snap the moment this dark stranger opens his mouth.

"Can you help him?" I ask softly, hardly daring to breathe.

Not human, not versed in our technology or science the way Bruce Banner is, but maybe...maybe…

"I possess not the power nor the skill to heal him."

I wait for the snap in my chest, for the sinking sensation as that brief hope is swept away-

"But these eyes have seen much," Heimdall admits. "And they see much now. I believe I can guide you through it."

I let out a shaky breath. "Really?"

He gives me a smile, the warmest I've seen in days. "Are you ready?"

Looking down at Vision's closed eyes, his slack face as his chest rises and falls. "I'm ready."

* * *

 **Tony Stark**

"Reflector panels engaged," T'Challa murmurs as he angles the ship into a smooth descend. I can't see anything as we soar through dense layers of gray and white clouds, but I clench the metal handle on the low ceiling above me tighter, leaning forward, like if I stare hard enough, I can see straight through the clouds to the land below.

The ship vibrates beneath the metal boots of my Ironman armor, the cloud cover causing mild turbulence as we shudder through them, and then suddenly we are free, T'Challa changing the angle of our descent.

"Holy shit," Sam breathes beside me.

I stare through the cockpit window, at the endless sea of green jungle stretching across the landscape below us in every direction. T'Challa slowly brings us down until we are close enough to see the thick canopy the tops of the trees create, an impenetrable ceiling preventing us from having any idea of what's happening below.

Natasha had radioed in several minutes ago with coordinates of where the last alien scouting ship had landed, our best bet to finding the others, and T'Challa is wasting no time getting there.

Hopefully our camouflaged presence goes unnoticed.

"The vein on your forehead is pulsing."

"It tends to do that in your presence. Have you noticed?" I don't bother scowling at Rhodey.

"Maybe it senses my infinite wisdom and gets intimidated."

I roll my eyes. "Yeah I don't think wisdom is what it's sensing."

"Well, gentlemen, should we start placing bets?" Clint asks from behind me.

"Bets on what?" Sam asks, half turning over his shoulder to frown at Clint. "Whether or not we get shot down before we land?"

"Jesus. No. On what our compadres are doing down under," the archer nods towards the cockpit window. "I'll go first. I bet twenty dollars that Bucky's taken out at least four on his own, has taken the weapons from their corpses, and is basically Rambo-ing it through the jungle."

Sam snorts. "I believe it. I'll bet that Steve's noble ass is leading the whole rag tag bunch-"

"Isn't that a given?"

"Let me finish," Sam shoots Rhodey a look. "And that his patriotic butt has needed saving at least twice."

"Tones, you gonna get in on this?" Rhodey raises a brow.

"How about, I bet that our teammates, our _friends_ , could be dying or dead as we speak, and placing these ridiculous gambles on their lives like they are down there on vacation and not in some alien jungle hell being hunted like animals is a goddamn waste of time?"

The silence is deafening.

"Tony-"

"Save it," I keep my eyes ahead on the growing jungle. "I don't want to hear it right now."

God, what a role reversal. Years ago, it would have been me making the inappropriate jokes and bets while Steve reigned it back in with one of his noble, brooding comments.

" _We found blood in one of their medical bays...it's Peter's."_

It's Peter's.

Why would it be anyone else's? Peter Parker has a knack for getting into life threatening situations like I have never seen before. Why wouldn't the blood be his? Not that I want it to be anyone else's either. The thought of any of their blood staining some horrific laboratory is sickening, but the kid? He's my responsibility. And he's been through too much. His blood has stained too many tables.

And then to find out that my friends are being _hunted_ by the vicious creatures that attacked us and took them? To know that the people I care about, all of whom I just got back in different ways, could already be dead, trophies for the monsters who hunted them?

 _Bring our boy home_ , May had said.

God, what if there isn't anything left of him for me to bring home? How can I face May Parker again? How can I face myself again?

My nerves are strung too tight, so tight that even my sarcastic tendencies and inappropriate humor seem to have been buried beneath the strain. Tolerance and patience levels are at zero.

And I just...I just can't.

I have to focus on the mission. I have to put every bit of myself into finding my friends, into saving the kid and bringing them home.

And let's add obliterating an entire alien species to that list.

"I bet," Clint says slowly, and I bristle, ready to snap at him. "That the spiderling started swinging on vines like Tarzan the first moment he could get."

The image in my head at that is utterly ridiculous, but...plausible. It replaces the one my own brain had supplied, of the kid running for his life through the jungle, being impaled by a spear or shot down, his mask taken like some kind of trophy.

Swinging like Tarzan. I could see that. The kid would probably have some ridiculous expression on his face, thinking himself all that and a bag of chips before slamming into some goddamn tree and falling on his ass.

Tarzan? More like George of the Jungle.

I heave a sigh, rolling my eyes. Damn it. "I bet that I kill more aliens than the three of you idiots combined."

"Oh, you're on," Rhodes takes the bet, fist bumping Wilson with his free hand.

Then Clint says, only loud enough for me to hear, "I bet Pete gets the biggest, dorkiest smile on his face when he sees you came to rescue him."

My insides clench at that, something aching in my chest at the image of the teenager's ridiculous grin, and my brain continues the image, imagining Peter running towards me, babbling about all the alien plant life and the cool moves he did and how Captain America walks on water…

"We are nearing the coordinates," T'Challa says from the front. "There's a clearing a couple miles off. We will land there, hide the ship, and continue on foot to keep our presence as unknown as possible."

"You're the boss," I say, the words rolling off my tongue. "Or, King, rather."

"I notice you did not include me in your bet, Mr. Stark," T'Challa adds, and though I can't see his face, I can imagine the perfectly arched brow as he waits for my answer.

"I've seen what you can do, Bagheera. If you don't kill more of those Predator wanna-bes than me, there's something seriously wrong. In which case, I'll help your sister stage a coup to overthrow you."

T'Challa lets out a soft chuckle. "If I can't kill more than you, Mr. Stark, I'll renounce the throne myself."

The trees grow larger, taller around us as we silently descend into the narrow clearing T'Challa located, and I let my helmet finally rise over my head, my face plate sealing over my face with a metallic whir. Lights and diagrams flicker on the display in front of me, my suit powering on.

I can hear Rhodey's doing the same, and I half turn to see Sam adjust the goggles on his face, his back shifting under the new set of vibranium wings Shuri had designed for him.

Then I look over my shoulder to see Clint staring evenly back, his jaw working as he calmly chews a piece of gum. "I'm good," he shrugs, motioning at the bow and quiver on his back, the knives lining his jacket.

"We are lucky," T'Challa rises the moment the ship touches the ground, his mask gliding over his face. "Their atmosphere is safe for us to breathe."

"Lucky, he says," Sam mutters, rolling his shoulders as he releases the handlebar on the ship's ceiling.

Rhodey pats him reassuringly on the shoulder as we group up near the ramp that will lower to the jungle floor so we can take our first steps on the alien planet. Their eyes turn to me, but, in a move that surprises even myself, I deflect to the king.

He has more experience with jungles than I do, alien or not, and something tells me his knack for strategy and team leadership are on level with Cap. Besides, who better to track down the alien hunters than another predator?

T'Challa straightens, chin raising. "Our mission is to locate and rescue everyone who was taken. We have the element of surprise on our hands, and I wish it to remain that way. Mr. Stark, Colonel, activate the camouflage reflector panels Shuri installed in your suits. You will be the eyes above while Clint, Sam and I trek the jungle below."

Camouflage reflector panels, huh? I'd already had something similar installed, but as I activate it remotely through my suit, I watch as my armored body nearly completely disappears, faint glimmers all that is visible.

Well, color me impressed, princess.

"Scout ahead," T'Challa continues, focusing his cat-like gaze on Rhodey and I. "But stay close. Use your scanners to locate signs of life, and we will hunt for tracks down below. Stay in communication, stay quiet."

The King of Wakanda looks at all of us in turn as he presses his palm against the scanner that begins lowering the ramp of the ship. "Now, let's go find our people."

"Sir, yes sir," Rhodey says, his voice impressed.

And I think maybe, just maybe, we have a shot at this. A thread of hope that usually finds itself drowning beneath pessimism and worst case scenarios is somehow stronger, brighter than it normally is, and I think that has something to do with these morons around me.

Hell, they're my morons. And if we pull this off and somehow all get back to Earth alive, I'll Oprah it up and start giving away free cars and shit to everyone.

"You heard the king," I say through my helmet, striding down the ramp and powering up my thrusters, the sounds more muffled, the lights somehow dimmer, perfect for stealth mode. "Welcome to the jungle. Let's move."

* * *

 **Peter Parker**

A slap to my already battered and bruised face has me jerking awake, my heart going into overdrive at the sight of the masked alien face inches away from my own. It rises, moving away from me, and I slowly sit up, holding a hand to my ribs as my entire body throbs and aches.

A sharp clang reverberates through my ears, stabbing into my skull. I realize that I've been dragged into some kind of cage, and the door has just been slammed shut.

Horror crawls across my skin, the metal bars around me already closing in _-too tight-too close-trapped-can't get out-_

Frantically, I move my hand from my ribs to press into my chest above my heart, pushing firmly down to the point of pain as I close my eyes and take in a few steadying breaths. The world around me is spinning, my heartbeat pounding too loud, too fast, panic cinching my insides.

 _Okay, Peter. Get ahold of yourself. You're not dead. That's a good thing. Remember what Cap said. Take stock of your surroundings. You got this._

Slowly, my breaths even out, my heartbeat slows, all just enough for me to open my eyes and not completely lose it. Progress.

The cage is just tall enough for me to stand up, though I remain seated on the ground. There's nothing in the cage with me, just the dirt covered ground and a mound of boulders in the corner. I notice the bars are made of the same stone as the ship, but instead of craggly, it's smooth, polished.

Taking another breath, I crawl forward to grip the bars, testing them with my strength as I look out through the gaps.

I'm in an alien hunter camp.

The four of them move efficiently around the jungle clearing, cleaning weapons, restocking, talking in their strange language. A bonfire burns in the center of it all, wooden posts on either side of it connected by a metal pole with a handle, and skewered across it is some kind of alien animal, its skin black and charred from the flames beneath it.

No smoke.

My stomach turns at the smell of burnt flesh, and nearly gagging, I turn away, taking in the huge cases of weapons and supplies, the empty cages around me, the military feel of the entire camp.

These guys are the experienced hunters, the ones that have been doing this for who knows how long. And they are stocked to the teeth with everything one could need for hunting superheroes in the jungle.

Skilled, experienced, supplied.

It's a bad combo.

I feel my face go slack as I let go of the bars and slump back in my cage with a weary sigh of dismay.

Why hadn't they dragged me back to the cave? Had they realized that my companions probably would have hightailed it when I led the hunters on a wild goose chase? Had they forgotten, or thought that maybe I'd been on my own after all?

Or had they dragged my unconscious body back there only to discover an empty cave, then took me here, to their camp? Do they still plan on using me as bait? To torture me, make me scream so that the others come running? Or do they have other nefarious plans in mind?

God, I'm going to be sick.

I hope Bucky and Bruce made it out okay. I hope they got out of there the moment I led off the other hunters and are hiding somewhere safe while Bucky heals up. I hope they run into the others.

I also sort of hope they'll come to rescue me.

Because right now? My chances of escape are nonexistent.

 _Trapped-I'm trapped-they're going to strap me down-cut me open-not again-not again-I can't-_

I bury my face in my hands, pulling my knees up to my chest as my palms slide up to rest against my forehead, my fingers tangling in my hair and yanking as I try to center myself. My whole body is shaking, the reality of the situation and the events of the past few days all crashing down on me at once.

I don't regret what I did, leading them away from Bucky and Bruce. I'll never regret that. But that doesn't mean I'm not beyond terrified at what's going to happen to me now.

Have I survived through all that I have, just to die in some cage in the middle of an alien jungle? It's wrong, it's so completely unfair to have beat Hydra, to have overcome Venom, and then to be tortured and killed off world like none of it mattered.

I want to go home. My breathing hitches, and I can't stop shaking. God, I just wanna go home.

"Hey, man. You ok?"

I jolt violently, jerking up and looking wildly around at the sudden voice that sounded off way too close to my ears. But no one is there.

What the hell? And what was that accent? I don't think I've ever heard it before, and the closest thing I can compare it to is Australian, maybe...New Zealand? The only time I've heard an accent from New Zealand is from the documentaries on the making of The Lord of the Rings.

I nearly let out a hysterical laugh. God, I'm such a nerd. A psychotic, losing my marbles nerd. This is it. I've finally cracked. I've finally lost my mind, huddled in a cage. I'm surprised I'm not rocking back and forth and talking back to the voices in my head.

"Over here, yep, there ya go, bit further, this big pile of rocks in the corner," continues the voice, and I turn wide, incredulous eyes to the boulders in the cage with me. Not boulders. A man, an alien, made completely of stone and sitting up against the bars. "Hey there. Name's Korg. 'M made of rocks. Stuck in this cage, same as you."

I'm gaping at him, mouth hanging open. Is this really happening right now? "Uhh….hey?" I manage, brows furrowed in confusion. "Oh. Um, I'm...I'm Peter."

"Nice to meet you, Peter. Captured by the Dravec as well, yeah? Terrible. I've been hiding out for weeks in a quarry on the other side of the mountain," Korg explains in his heavily accented voice, sounding entirely unperturbed that he's locked in a cage and about to die. "Made sense. I'm made of rock, quarry's made of rock. Perfect spot to hide, if you know what I mean."

This is by far the strangest thing that has ever happened to me. And that's saying a lot.

"Anyways, they got me in the end, didn't they? Saw my buddy Meik crawling across the quarry in the distance, stood up to wave, and he fell right through a crack in the rock," Korg frowns at me. "Fell to his death. I felt so guilty I let myself get captured. And here we are."

"I'm...sorry about your friend," is all I can think to say. I can't believe I'm talking to another alien, one who's been here for longer than I have, one who's been hunted and captured, just like me. My mind is whirling. "Where do you come from? How'd you get here?"

"I'm Kronan, originally. Yeah, an entire planet of rock beings. Everyone was decent, but they all had their faults, bit of rock humor for you there, so me and mum left, ended up on Sakaar where she met her boyfriend, who's a bit of a dick. Became a gladiator because I tried to start a revolution-"

"Wait, a gladiator?" I sit up straighter. "You mean with Dr. Banner?!"

"Ah no, sorry. I don't know a Dr. Banner. I know a Ban Hur, if that's who you mean? A bit purple, very tentacle-y and whatnot."

Oh. Duh. "Sorry, I mean the Hulk? Big green guy?" I ask hopefully.

"Oh! You mean the Grandmaster's Champion! Yeah, no, never fought him myself. I did all the warm up fights, which worked out fairly well for me, all things considered. Anyone who faced the Champion perished. Well, all except the Lord of Thunder."

My heart stops. Lord of _Thunder_?! "Please tell me you mean Thor," I plead, almost daring to hope.

"Yeah, that's the one. Helped him lead the second revolution. Then a third in Asgard, I reckon, if you're keeping track, which I am."

"You were with Thor," my voice rises in excitement. "You were with Thor and the Hulk when their ship was attacked! You got kidnapped with them!"

"You sound pretty excited about this, which is a bit confusing, seeing as it was all pretty terrible and traumatic, and we're both now in a cage waiting to die."

"Have you seen Thor? Have you seen anyone else while you've been here?"

"No, I haven't. Just my good friend Meik, who's gone now. And you. What's your story, bro?"

I blink, excitement dying, thrown off by an alien made of rocks calling me "bro". "Oh, uh, I'm from Earth, with the Avengers. That's where we got taken from. Thor's an Avenger too."

"Is he? That's very interesting. Are there many of you? What exactly are you avenging?"

"Six. And uh...Earth, I guess? How many of you got taken?"

"Well, including me and Meik, there were five of us. Everyone might be dead though, for all I know. I think the Dravec mean to use me as bait, which is rather pointless, if everyone's dead and all."

For an alien who's had such a hard time and is in such a dire situation, he comes across as fairly nonchalant. It's weird, but sort of endearing, I guess? Kind of makes everything seem not as bad, if he can talk about it so casually.

I still don't believe Thor can be dead. I've never met the guy, but he's a freaking god. Korg didn't see what happened to him, which means he has to be out there somewhere.

"Who're you bait for? Are your friends still alive, or did they fall down a stone chasm to their imminent deaths as well?" Korg asks with a tilt of his head.

"No, no they're still alive. My friends will come for me," I reply, my insides twisting at the words.

"That's nice. Hope they don't all die horrible deaths coming to save you and falling into the terrible traps the Dravec are no doubt building as we speak, leaving you with the crushing weight of guilt on your shoulders for the rest of your short life before you get killed too," Korg says cheerfully.

Holy shit. I stare at him. I want to be rescued. I really, really do. But I don't want any of the Avengers to fall into a trap the aliens will lay. I don't want any of them to get hurt or die trying.

Which means...I have to escape. I have to get out of here before the torturing and the screaming starts, before they can use me as bait.

And I'm no longer on my own.

Keeping an eye on the Dravec moving around the camp, entirely unconcerned that their captives are speaking to each other, I move as close to Korg as I dare.

Korg lifts an eyebrow. "Whoa, hey man, I like you and all, but this cage is pretty cramped already. If you could kindly move back to your side, it would be much appreciated."

I catch sight of a herd of alien creatures tethered to the trees just outside of the clearing. Seeing them only in glimpses between the bushes, I spot scaled hides, metal saddles and armor stretching across broad backs, the gnashing of fanged teeth.

Bingo.

"Hey Korg, what do you say to starting a fourth revolution?"

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **SO. Hi. Long time no see. I hate it when fan fiction authors list the excuses that have kept them from posting for a long time. But, here I am, giving you my excuses. In all fairness, I think they are pretty legit.**

 **First, there were the fires. That sucked, but me and my family and friends are all ok! Thank you everyone for the thoughts and prayers.**

 **Then, I saw a massage therapist, and a doctor, and both informed me that my wrists were shot, and that I needed to take a two week hiatus from any typing, writing, drawing, etc., which turned into over a month due to the amount of pain. Carpal Tunnel is a bitch, guys.**

 **Third, my laptop, my beloved computer, got what is commonly known as the blue screen of death, shortly after I was advised to give my aching wrists a break. Despite all my efforts, there is no bringing my laptop back. :( It's been super hard, super depressing, and I have no funds with which to purchase myself a new computer. I am currently typing on my stepmom's laptop, only because she and my dad are on a two week vacation in Mexico, and I am housesitting for them.**

 **All that being said, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PATIENCE! I know it's hard, and I know I left you guys at a very mean point. I thoroughly apologize and appreciate your understanding due to my ridiculous circumstances. I hope to post as much as I can during these two weeks with computer access, to maybe even finish out the story as part of my apology for taking so damn long to update this story. A huge thank you to all of you who are dutifully sticking around, to those who will review this chapter, and to those who have sent me private messages to check to see if I am ok.**

 **I am ok. Broke, laptop-less, and suffering from carpal tunnel. But ok. LOL.**

 **ALSO DID YOU GUYS SEE THE CAPTAIN MARVEL TRAILER? EEEEEEK!**

 **ANYWAYS! A massive thank you to PippinStrange, who is not only the world's finest beta and best fangirl, but who was also incredibly supportive to me during my torturous hiatus from writing. LONGEST MONTH OF MY LIFE. I could not have done it without you! If you guys haven't checked out her work, do so ASAP. I know of a few projects she is working on, including her work in progress Where They Go, which heals a llll the Infinity War wounds and makes my heart so happy. Best writer and** **author I know, and I am so beyond honored and lucky to have her in my life.**

 **THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO CONTINUED TO LEAVE ME REVIEWS! You guys seriously made my day, even during the hardest and most frustrating ones when all I wanted to do was cry and scream because of how badly I wanted to write, and haven't been able to.**

 **Did any of you see Korg coming, by the way? LOL! I never intended to put him in the fic, but suddenly, there he was, and boy was he hilarious to write. I hope I did him justice, as he was absolutely hilarious in Ragnarok.**

* * *

 **Blaney: I am so glad you loved this enough to devour the first two stories, and that you are enjoying the third installment also! Thank you so much for your patience and understanding with the fires and all the other circumstances! You are amazing**

 **StarStepper: GOSH I KNOW. IM SO SORRY TO LEAVE YOU HANGING LIKE THAT. Tormenting is in my blood. Although this amount of time was completely unintentional I swear. lol**

 **Puppens101: WOW OMG. Thank you for your review! The Dravec should be legit terrified of you, my friend! Lol! Thank you for your support and encouragement regarding the fires and all the families with us! Everyone is safe and the fire is out and doing well! THANK YOU! I'm so glad you are enjoying this!**

 **Guest: THANK YOU! For your review and well wishes. I know you Oregonians get your fair share of fires too, so I hope you have stayed safe as well!**

 **Guest: Thanks!**

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 **Bethisafan77: Thank you so very much for your good thoughts! They definitely helped! And thank you for your kind review! I am so happy you are enjoying this** **fic!  
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 **EmilyF.6: Ahhhhhh thank you for reading! Thor and Bucky will meet soon! ;)**

 **Guest: GAH I KNOW! Glad I could make you laugh with THAT rabbit, lol. And it seriously SLAYS me when I give someone goosebumps, so omg, thank you so much for telling me that/ Don't you worry, Okoye will get her revenge!**

 **Kairianna864: YES! I'm so glad it was worth the wait, and hope this one was too! I love my Ragnarok boys! Thank you for your kind words!**

 **Jeyfeather1234: I KNOW I am so mean. But yay for the Asgardians being ok!**

 **GinaBoo: HEY! Thank you for your kindness regarding the fire! We are all doing well! And I am so glad you enjoyed the chapter, and that I was able to give you chills! I have seen the Venom trailers! Everytime I see one, all I want to do is continue this universe, as I don't get how there can be a Venom without Spiderman, lol! I definitely am looking forward to the movie, mostly so I can get more scene ideas for the CMFU ;) Hope you are doing well!**

 **cargumentluv: Thank you for your prayers! They were so appreciated, more than you know. Hope this chapter was worth the long wait!**

 **gammathetaalpha: Thank you! For the review and your prayers!**

 **LoonyLovegood1981: YES PIETRO! Gah, I loved Age of Ultron so much. Yay for the Thor and Loki scene catching you off guard and being funny! That made me happy! And poor Peter the rabbit! Lol! Luckily our boy has another ally now! Seriously, thank you for your prayers, they were beyond appreciated!**

 **KiernanCo: Thank you very much! I hope your cousin and her husband have stayed safe through all this craziness, and I thank you for your kind wishes! Glad you are enjoying the story!**

 **Shannon K:** **I am also sad to those who lost so much during the fire. THank you for your kind thoughts and prayers! They worked miracles! Glad you love the story still!**

 **Kirby Lane: Lol! I promise I won't tell Bucky or Stark about your enjoyment for Peter whump, as long as you don't tell on me either, because i live for that kind of shit. lol. I'm glad you liked the Loki burying Thor alive bit, I cracked myself up writing that. AND OMG YOUR REVIEW THO! XD. I am beyond honored that you could even consider me close to on par with the Marvel writers, and having access to a secret Marvel lair. I WISH! LOL! That truly made my day, my life rather, and I am so happy! Thank you so much! I wish I could make these into movies, gosh I would just die! I am so glad to have you as a reader and reviewer, and hope you enjoyed this chapter after such a long wait!**

 **Shadow-wolf78: Thank you!**

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 **Guest (Sara B.): Yes the team is so close to coming altogether! The Dravec truly are a horrific race. It hurt my heart to write that scene for poor Okoye and Shuri, but don't worry, they will avenge their fallen. And I also love Natasha, Okoye, and Shuri as a team! I loved the Okoye/Nat/Wanda mix in Infinity War, so this was my ode to that.**

 **tbex27: WOW! I am beyond honored that my stories are the reason you created an account! Thank you! And thanks for all your well wishes about the fires! CA is terrible when it comes to fire season, isn't it?**

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 **Andy Frost: I DON'T KNOW, I CAN'T HELP MYSELF. IT'S WHAT I LIVE FOR. LOL.**

 **Seawell: Thank you for both the reader side of you, and the empathic as well. Thank you for your well wishes and advice and consideration, you are truly amazing and kind hearted, and I so appreciated reading and rereading your review. Thank you soooooooooooo much, Truly. Your prayers are very appreciated, as well as your patience and understanding. AND LOL TO YOUR EXTRA REVIEW ABOUT THE HOLY GRAIL RABBIT! LOL! "IM A RABBIT" OMG I WAS DYING! XD! GLAD YOU ENJOYED THAT SCENE!**

 **Leiah Cloud: Wow, Finland! I'm honored to have a reader from so far! Thank you for your well wishes, your congratulations, and review! I really hope to get my book published someday, and hope you can read it! And yay! Glad you are enjoying the fic still! Thank yoU!**

 **screechyfangirl: YES!**

 **Guest: The Dravec aren't aware of infinity stones. But if they had been given the chance, I have no doubt they would have tried to take the mind stone from Vision. Fortunately for the Avengers, Wanda hasn't let them anywhere near Vision in order to take it and learn to harness its powers for themselves**

 **Padfoot: Thanks! Peter is my favorite character, and as these stories are part of a series and collective universe, he will always be my focus, but I do try and expand to include even more characters with each installment. :) I'm so glad you are enjoying!**

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 **Shoyzz: I KNOW I'M SORRY! I am so happy to hear how much you are enjoying this, and Loki! Hope you liked this chapter as well!**

 **Guest: Lol! OMg thank you! I used to be terrified of action scenes, and now they are my favorite ! Thank you so much!**

 **Whoa: THANK YOU! thanks for your understanding about the fires, and your love for this universe!**

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 **momocandy2: LOL! Your review tho! XD XD XD! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and that you continue enjoying it while at work and scaring your coworkers! That seriously made me laugh! THank you!**

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 **Guest: Don't die or cease to exist! And enjoy the Spiderman game! lol!**

 **Guest: Thanks!**

 **EmPro8: I am very glad you are enjoying this so far. I do my best to remain in character and semi true to Marvel, though I know I put my own spin on it. Glad it reads semi-realistic, in regards to the MCU :) Passing as canon is my ultimate goal and my FAVORITE thing to read from reviewers, so seriously THANK YOU! I try so hard! lol!**

 **MewWinx96: Hi! I am so glad you like this story so far! I've stayed safe, so thank you!**

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* * *

 **OH MAN! The amount of reviews seriously floored me. I have the best reviewers and support group a fan fiction writer could ask for. Thank you to each and every one of you, and I'd love to hear from you again! I MISSED YOU ALL SO MUCH! SO GOOD TO BE BACK!  
**

* * *

 **COMING SOON:**

 **Chapter Fifteen: I Won't Back Down**

 **We catch up with Bruce and Bucky, both who are determined to save their younger, brasher teammate, and who run into a surprise of their own. We also follow Clint and the others as they experience this hellish alien jungle that their comrades have been stuck in for too long. As for Peter and Korg….LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION**


	15. I Won't Back Down

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN: I Won't Back Down**

* * *

 **Bucky Barnes**

...

...

I tear through the jungle at an unrelenting pace, Bruce struggling to keep up behind me, his breathing ragged. The knife wound in my side is throbbing with pain beneath the layers of grey bandages wrapped around it, a faint fever still sending chills shuddering across my sweat drenched skin.

But I don't have time to wait for it to heal completely.

Peter doesn't have that kind of time.

Bruce lets out a muffled curse as he trips, but I don't slow or stop for him. Part of me is furious with the man for letting the kid dart out of the cave. The moment he'd slipped out, I'd tried to surge to my feet, but the pain had been crippling, forcing me to grip the wall in support before I passed out.

I'd demanded that Bruce go after him, that he turn into the green raging beast he keeps so carefully locked away and tear this jungle apart to make sure that the kid would be ok. But he'd hesitated, eyes on my damn wound, and then a lone alien hunter had discovered us.

The battle had taken longer than it should have, with the scientist trying desperately not to Hulk out in such a confined space with an injured teammate at his side, but the man was no fighter. Not compared to the alien.

Too long. It had taken me too long to blink away the spots in my vision enough to pull the knife from my belt as Banner had grappled with the hunter, surprisingly holding his own enough to not have been slaughtered straight off. With the last of my strength, I had tossed him my knife, and he'd killed the alien himself.

Shocked, horrified, and drenched in black blood, he'd stared at the corpse for a long moment before slumping against the wall.

And despite how hard I had fought to stay awake, my eyes had rolled into the back of my skull just before everything went black. When I woke, feeling significantly more healed, Bruce had collected the supplies off the alien's body and told me he'd tried to find which direction Peter had gone in while I'd been unconscious, but had zero clue how to track.

Without a trail to follow, turning into the Hulk would do nothing to save Peter.

My muscles are unbearably tense, my insides churning with a sharp anxiety as I plow through the jungle without care, picking up on the signs that the scientist is too inexperienced to see.

It's maybe not fair of me to be angry with the man. He'd tried to grab Peter before the teenager surged off on his idiotic, self-sacrificing play. He'd fought off the alien as best he could. And he'd tried to find out which way to go so that he could employ the use of his worse half to save him.

Bruce had tried.

But he'd come up short, and with the midday sun blaring through the gaps in the jungle canopy, we could already be too late to save Peter.

Damn that scrawny little idiot. Damn all the scrawny little idiots whose hero complexes are bigger than their common sense that somehow become my responsibility.

My jaw clenches as I brush massive leaves the size of my torso aside with my metal arm, my eyes glaring up at the broken branches of the trees above me, the smoldering edges of them that speak of plasma rifle fire.

He's probably dead already, my mind informs me grimly. There were four of them, and it's been hours. If he was alive, he would have come back to the cave.

No. I slam those thoughts away as viciously as I am able to. I did not save his ass this many times, I did not get stabbed and nearly killed myself just to let him die now. If anyone is going to survive this godforsaken place, it's going to be Peter.

Banner wheezes, lagging farther behind me as I storm across large splinters of wood littering the jungle floor, following the signs to rush around the large trunk of a tree.

I stop short.

Seconds later, a panting Bruce comes staggering up behind me. "Oh my god," he breathes in horror.

The entire side of the tree is scorched, its maze of roots burned, chunks of it nothing more than shards and splinters of wood among the ashes. This entire area is a disaster, clear signs of a life or death struggle, a fight marking up the trees, the ground at our feet.

An alien hunter corpse lays in the center of it all, a spear driven through its chest, pinning it into the ground.

I move for it, my gaze moving over its unseeing, foggy eyes, the nearly dry pool of blood beneath its body, the spear twisting straight through its black armor. Crouching beside it, I notice a second stab wound in its chest, smaller, jagged, likely from a knife.

"Jesus," Bruce places a hand over his mouth, eyes wide. "Did _Pete_ do this?"

My fingers trail across the broken edges of the armor, my eyes noticing the dark, dried blood on the alien's own wrist blade and noticing the large boot prints pressed into the soft earth beside me. "I don't think so. It's too precise, like whoever killed it knew exactly what it was doing, where to hit. Likely one of the other hunters."

If it's one thing I know, it's that the kid is no killer. He couldn't have done this.

The scientist moves away, either unable to stand looking at the body any further or to look around for any other clues as to what exactly happened here.

Spotting the alien's high tech rifle on the ground several feet away, I move for it, picking it up and examining it, noting the layout is similar to a Barrett M82 rifle. A series of lights on the side seem to indicate how many energy blasts are left in the gun's capabilities, and I'd guess about seventy percent remains.

"Bucky."

Bruce's tone has alarm bells clanging in my head, has wariness coiling in my gut as I turn to him. His face is ashen, expression aghast, eyes trained on the ground. Dread pulls at me as I move to his side, heart beginning to pound as I follow his gaze.

I have to take a deep, steadying breath.

Bending slowly into a crouch, my free hand reaches hesitantly forward, and then my fingers are curling into the material, dirt falling to the ground as I lift it into the air.

Peter's mask.

One of the lenses is cracked, the red material dirt streaked as it hangs limply from my fingers.

Banner makes a sound like he's going to be sick. "It doesn't mean anything, right? So we found his mask? He could have taken it off after the lens got damaged and kept running. It doesn't mean he's...it doesn't…"

My hand forms a fist around the mask as I stand, my chest going hollow and empty as I scan the area around the discovered mask, seeing the impressions in the dirt, the broken stalks of the plants.

"He was dragged," I say, my voice coming out hoarse. "Over there. Two of them were dragging him away."

They could have been dragging his corpse as a trophy, as proof of their kill.

They could have been dragging his unconscious body for some other nefarious purpose, to savor a slow kill, to use him as bait, to torture him into revealing where his allies hid.

Ice splinters through my blood, the void in my chest growing darker, sharper. There are times that I loathe this empty, violent part of me, the part that Hydra had a hand in creating. But there are moments I am glad of it, moments where I slip eagerly into that deadly calm, ready to unleash that part of me to do what has to be done.

 _Snap_.

I whirl, plasma rifle already raised, finger on the trigger as I aim down the sights in the direction of the sound.

My breathing remains even. My heartrate doesn't spike or quicken. I just calmly wait for the hunter to step out from behind the trees, to show its hideous face. The plan forms easily in my mind like it has always been there.

Take it down. Make it suffer. Force it to show us where its comrades would have taken Peter.

Banner is stiff at my side, his wide, panicked eyes darting from me to the jungle beyond. I am so still, I swear I can hear his frantic heartbeat, double the steady pace of my own.

The bushes rustle, footsteps sinking into mud, and my finger tightens against the trigger.

"Bucky?" Bruce whispers uncertainly.

A man steps out of the foliage. Tall, an eyepatch over one eye and armor covering his chest, leaving his muscular arms bare. Unarmed, but his single eye narrows on me, and his muscles tense, ready to fight.

"Thor?" Bruce gapes, his voice thick with shock as he takes a hesitant step forward.

The man's single eye snaps to his. "Bruce!"

The scientist lets out a strangled laugh as he darts forward, a grin stretching the stranger's face as his strides eat up the space between them before they embrace.

"Man, am I glad to see you!" Bruce's voice is muffled, but heavy with relief. "I thought you were dead."

More rustling in the bushes behind them, and a second man emerges, his familiar blue eyes meeting mine straight away. He stops at the sight of my gun aimed at his chest.

Steve.

Seeing him breaks through the quiet place I've sunked into, and I straighten, lowering the gun to hang loosely at my side.

His face breaks into a relieved smile. "Hey Buck."

"Hey Steve."

He moves past Banner and Thor to clap a hand on my shoulder, a move I replicate as a small smile forms on my own mouth. "Been awhile," Steve says, and I notice his unkempt hair and beard, the dirt streaking his uniform, the small splatters of black blood across the shield peeking over his shoulder.

I know I probably look as well as he does.

"Here, this belongs to you," I hear Banner say as he reaches into his pocket. Steve and I both look as he hands Thor an eyepatch. "Although your new one is...nice too."

Thor lets out a scoff. "I cut it from my own armor. Chafes terribly. Thank you, my friend. I hope you slew the hunter that dared to take it from me in recompense."

"Er...well, it's dead. I didn't exactly do the slaying or...recompensing."

"We've been looking for you," Steve says, stepping towards Bruce, his voice grim. "Vision's injured. Wanda's done what she can, but-"

"How bad is it?" Bruce asks, brows furrowing in concern.

"Bad," Steve replies.

"Heimdall and Loki are with them," adds Thor. "Heimdall might be able to assist Wanda in healing him, but they could use your expertise."

"We have bigger problems," I interrupt, and all eyes turn to me as I lift up Peter's mask. Thor frowns in confusion, but I see Steve's expression change, features sharpening with worry.

"What happened?" he demands.

"Bucky was injured," Bruce answers grimly. "We got pinned down last night by four of them, and the kid ran off to lead them away."

Steve's eyes drop to the bandages covering my side, eyes flashing with concern. I shake my head and say, "I'm fine. We followed their trail here and found his mask. Looks like they dragged him off in that direction."

When Steve's eyes meet mine, I can read the hesitant question there, the one he's too scared to ask out loud. I have no answer to give him. There's no way to tell whether or not Peter is dead.

Either way, I'm going after those hunters.

I see the same determination and resolve form on Steve's face, on Bruce's, and even Thor, who has never met Peter to my knowledge, gives a brisk nod as we all come to the same conclusion.

"Heimdall will keep Vision alive until our return," he declares. "We will not leave an ally in the clutches of the enemy."

"We either rescue him," I say darkly, tucking the mask into my pocket and adjusting my grip on the rifle. "Or we avenge him."

* * *

 **Clint Barton**

I've done a lot of missions for S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers. Most of them, fortunately, have taken place in major cities, populated areas, namely Europe. A handful of them had me flying to South America, infiltrating the jungles to stop things like illegal arms deals, trafficking, the like.

I've always hated the jungle.

You'd think being on an alien planet in the far reaches of space, in a very cold, dark corner of space, mind you, that it would be cooler, dryer. Not the moistest, hottest hell I've ever stepped foot in.

God, give me snow, give me the barren icy wastelands of Siberia, hell, give me the dry heat of the Sahara desert. I'd trade any of it over being in this jungle. My skin is so damp I can't tell what's sweat and what is the humidity.

"Anyone else feel like they might have pissed themselves?" Sam mutters from my right. "Goddamn, it's like I'm swimming in this air."

I snort. "Seconded."

"If you are unused to the humidity of the jungle," mutters T'Challa. "I can see how it would be uncomfortable."

"Uncomfortable?" I echo. "I feel like maybe I'm being punished for something. Not all of us have air conditioning installed into our suits."

" _Jealous_?" comes Stark's voice from the comms as he soars somewhere overhead.

"No, I'm not jealous," I reply lightly as I draw an arrow from my quiver and notch it onto my bow, pausing to stretch back my arm, aiming up towards the canopy way in the distance where I imagine Tony to be flying. "Not at all."

Sam sees the move and smirks, his lips tightening to contain a laugh.

Keep it light. Keep it snarky.

Something I've learned during my career as field agent and resident archer. If you keep things light, keep a smile on your face, you don't drown in anxiety and fear. What ifs? I gave those up a long time ago. It's my coping mechanism, and I'm sticking with it.

There's movement in the distance.

"Hold," I mutter into the comms as I move into the shadows behind the tree, lowering my bow to aim at a grassy ledge I can see, maybe 900 meters away. Around me, T'Challa and Sam melt into the darkness, the Black Panther more effortlessly than the Falcon.

My sharp eyes hone in on the ledge, on the barely rustling bushes behind it.

Could be nothing. Could be a hell of a lot of something.

A figure, tall and armored, stealthily shoulders their way through the palm fronds, crouching low as it uses the high vantage point to survey the jungle beneath it.

"You guys seeing this?" I ask softly, my lips barely moving.

" _It's one of those monsters who attacked Manhattan,_ " Sam breathes back over the comms, our voices just loud enough to make out.

"I got a bead on it," I murmur, the tip of my arrow following the alien as it sticks to the shadows, low to the ground. "Should I take the shot?"

Always best to defer to team leader in these situations. Another hard lesson learned from the Avengers' early days when we were taking down Hydra bases in search of Loki's staff. Some of those missions were stealthier than others and required more...communication.

Taking down an enemy in enemy territory is always a risky play if you don't know where the other bad guys are.

" _Proceed_ ," orders T'Challa.

I let the arrow fly.

Silently, it cuts through the air with unprecedented speed, the vibranium tip encased in a matte black paint to prevent it from catching the light. Seconds later, it goes straight into the alien's left eye, and it collapses with a soft thump to the ground.

" _Damn_ ," Sam comments appreciatively.

" _Hold position,_ " T'Challa commands. " _We don't know if it was a killing blow with this species."_

I lower my bow. "Trust me, that sucker is dead."

When we approach the body, I kick it over, rolling it onto its back. Clean shot, almost went straight through the back of its skull. Sam whistles as I lean over and yank the arrow out, cleaning it on the grass before tucking it back into my quiver.

"That is disgusting," he remarks, crinkling his nose.

"What? You think arrows grow on trees around here? I have to consolidate."

"Still. That thing was covered in brains and shit."

"Better its brains than mine."

"So this is the face of our enemy," T'Challa stands over the body, hands curling into fists. "This is the face of the monsters who took my people."

"Ugly bastards," I toe the corpse. "How do you like being hunted, asshole?"

" _Are you three finished playing around down there?_ " Stark's voice sounds off in my earpiece.

"Jealous?" I echo back. "First kill's mine, Tony. Score's one-zip."

" _It was a lucky shot."_

" _We're coming up on something here, might be that ship Nat told us about_ ," Rhodey cuts in before I can reply. " _Northwest of your position, three miles ahead. Want us to check it out?_ "

"Proceed, but stay hidden. If you engage the hostiles, do it quick. Do it quiet," orders T'Challa as we take off into the jungle. "We are on our way."

" _Hear that, Barton?"_ Stark calls out over the comms. " _The score is about to tilt heavily in my favor."_

"Enjoy it while it lasts, pal. Highest kill count gets eternal bragging rights. Loser buys everybody dinner when we get back home."

" _I will enjoy every bite of that free dinner,"_ Rhodey joins in. " _when I kick your asses._ "

"You all better hope Okoye does not join in on this when she reaches the surface," T'Challa interjects. "She will leave you all in the dust."

Sam and I exchange looks as we run.

The game is most definitely afoot. And I have no intention of losing.

Keep it light. Keep it snarky. Don't think about the rest.

* * *

 **Peter Parker**

I release a long breath. "Are you ready for this?"

"Yeah, I'm ready. Are you ready? Sorry, that's dumb, 'course you're ready, you asked the question."

I give Korg a sideways glance. The rock alien's face is blank of expression, his stature and voice completely nonchalant and relaxed.

God, I wish I was that chill.

Inside my chest is a mass of writhing nerves and old, phantom fears of a dark cell and blindingly white mountains. My skin feels too tight, too constricting, and the bars of the cage sometimes seem to scoot closer and closer to my body. That feeling of trapped-trapped-trapped-sneaking up on me whenever Korg or I are quiet for too long.

At least this time, I'm not alone.

I have a...well, sort-of friend, an ally at the very least, who's here with me. I have Korg. I'm not alone, and we have the shreds of a plan to escape, so not hopeless either.

"You ok? You seem sort of pale and terrified."

"Do I?" I ask absentmindedly, eyes roaming over the campsite.

"Yeah, a bit. Could be because we're trapped in this cage about to be tortured or mutilated, and our plan will likely end in our imminent deaths."

"Could be," I agree, swiping the sweat dripping from my forehead. I wish I had my mask. "I think this is gonna work."

"Even if it doesn't, at least we'll die brutally together," adds Korg cheerfully.

"Sure. We have that going for us at least."

"You remind me a lot of my old friend Miek. It's like having a piece of him with me," Korg announces, and my lips curve into a sad smile as he continues. "Not like an actual piece of him, that would be rather gross, but like a sentimental piece I can actually talk to and hopefully help save."

"Thanks, Korg."

It's kind of hard to stay too terrified with Korg around. His oddly bright demeanor mixed with his inability to not say whatever is on his mind, no matter how gruesome, is kind of grounding. Somehow he makes a terrible death sound not so bad, which hey, points for optimism and creative spins on things.

Were I alone I probably would have cracked like an egg and been a ball of hyperventilating mush in the corner.

There's movement in the bushes at the edge if the camp. Looks like the Dravec have finished laying their traps.

The leader is nowhere to be seen, but one of the hunters emerges from the depths of the jungle to join the second, who'd been left on guard duty with us. That one had spent its time cleaning weapons, making sure the blades were visible from where Korg and I are imprisoned.

The aliens converse in their strange amphibious hissing and clicking, and Korg and I exchange nervous glances.

It's not like I want them to be ready to torture one of us, but if Korg and I don't get out of this cage like, ASAP, the odds of the others tracking us down and getting caught up in the traps gets higher and higher. We have to get out of here before that happens.

"Where d'you reckon the leader went?" Korg asks quietly.

"I don't know," I mutter, eyeing the three worriedly before my eyes stray back to their equipment. It makes me nervous that I haven't seen the huge Dravec in hours. With luck, it went to join up with another group of hunters for a more exciting hunt.

I highly doubt it though.

This was its bloodthirsty plan, and something tells me that that alien likes to see things through to the gruesome end.

The hunters are gesturing towards the cage, and I stiffen. The pair begins to move towards us, wielding plasma rifles.

My heart begins to race wildly, my muscles coiling with tension as my breathing becomes shallower. This is it. We either do this and it works and we escape, or we do this and it all goes to hell. There's not much to lose at this point.

"I got you, New Miek," Korg whispers just as the aliens encircle the cage. He pats my shoulder reassuringly, and I wince at the feel of rocks slamming against my body, but appreciate the gesture all the same. Though I really don't know how I feel about being named after his previous friend that fell to his death.

The door opens.

There's a moment of bated breath, a moment where it seems the air itself has been zapped from the jungle as those bars slide up with a ringing hiss. Now only the alien hunters stand between us and freedom.

My eyes dart to the plasma rifles aimed straight for us in the gaps of the bars. Can't move yet. Not until they choose which one of us they are going to take.

The first alien reaches for me.

Version two of the plan then.

I let the alien's long fingers curl around my upper arm and pull me from the cage, and I drag my feet just as I pass the threshold. The moment I stand to my full height, taking my first step out of the cage, just as the alien begins to lower the barred door, Korg lunges with a yell.

The Dravec were expecting a desperate attempt, and we'd been counting on it. Just as the other alien opens fire at Korg, he throws himself back against the bars, the plasma energy blasts hitting the halfway shut door instead, blowing it clean off and into the cell.

Korg seizes it and charges, holding the door of our cage like a battering ram that he slams into the other alien's throat just as I twist free out of my captor's grasp and slam my fist right into its eye.

It shrieks, staggering back, and I take a running leap to deliver a hard spinning kick right into the side of its head. The alien drops to the ground, and as I land in a crouch, I spare a quick glance for Korg, to see that he's managed to knock the rifle out of the other alien's hands and is swinging the door of our cage like a baseball bat.

Gotta start phase two.

Holy shit this is actually working.

I charge towards the other end of the camp, towards the copse of trees I had seen glimpses of what I hoped were super badass alien horses. And as I sprint closer, I can see that I was right.

 _My god._

I can actually hear Dr. Grant's voice from Jurassic Park in my head, because the alien creatures tethered to those trees are probably the closest things I will ever see to dinosaurs in real life.

"Holy crap," I breathe, eyes wide at the raptor like heads, the four three-clawed muscled limbs, the scaly gray hides and spiked tails, the armored saddles, the crimson eyes and slitted pupils. " _Awesome_."

Or, it will be, if I get this to work without getting eaten.

I aim my webshooter at the pole tethering all four creatures, and then my spidey-sense goes wild. I whirl, ducking as the butt of a plasma rifle jabs for my skull. Leaping back and landing in a defensive crouch, my eyes widen.

The Dravec leader is back.

And it's _pissed._

It flips the gun in its hand, aiming down its sights at me. I fire a web, and the moment it attaches to the rifle, I yank it hard out of the alien's grip. "I'll take that!"

When I catch it, I swing it around to point at the Dravec leader. My pulse is racing, and maybe all the adrenaline and lack of sleep have made me delirious, but I smirk at the alien and say in a low, rasping growl, "You've got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"

It's a poor imitation, but Ned would be proud of the badassery of it.

I pull the trigger. It lets out a loud, ominous click, and my eyes shoot down to the weapon, its lights blinking red before guttering out with a sad sounding whine. "Ohhhhhh crap."

My gaze lifts, just as a massive hand wraps around my throat. I drop the useless weapon, reaching up to grab the alien's wrist, frantically pulling. Oh god, if it decides to release its wrist blade, I'm beyond dead.

I hang on to its forearm and kick up with both feet as hard as I can. The alien leader staggers back with a hiss, but doesn't let me go. Instead, it yanks me closer, spinning me around so my back is pressed against its armored chest.

One hand on the alien's wrist, I shoot out my arm towards the tethers holding the dinosaur-horse alien things, fingers reaching down to press onto the trigger in my palm, but the Dravec leader wrenches my arm behind my back so hard it nearly dislocates my shoulder.

Shit-shit-sh-

We turn together, and I see Korg pinned to the ground, both Dravec hunters trapping him, each with a foot on his rocky arms, plasma rifles aimed at his skull. Korg looks up at me with a grim expression. "Well, we tried at least. Hope they kill you quick, little buddy."

My stomach sinks even as my pulse shoots into overdrive. It had been a long shot, a desperate, half assed plan. But I had hoped-I had thought it could work. Instead, all we'd done was piss them off.

The hand on my throat squeezes, and I scrabble at it with my free hand as the Dravec leader pulls me along with it towards the strange, smokeless fire burning in the center of the camp.

I struggle as violently as I am able to in its grip, knowing that it means to hurt me, knowing that it's time to draw out as many of the Avengers as it can. As scared as I am about the pain, I know I've experienced worse. What terrifies me the most is the others coming to save me, only to fall into the traps laid out for them.

I don't want them to die because of me.

The Dravec's grip tightens suddenly, cutting off all my air. I try to wrench my arm out of its grasp, try to claw at the hand on my throat, but my struggles quickly weaken. My lips are parted, gasping for air that won't come as my lungs burn with unbearable fire, bruises blooming, throat crushing, spots erupting in front of my eyes-can't breathe-can'tbreathe-

I think I black out for a minute, because the next thing I know, I am on my stomach in the dirt, both arms pinned behind me, a massive hand encircling my wrists and a knee digging into my back. Wheezing, choking, my throat on fire, I turn my head to the side and try to wriggle free.

The Dravec hunter reaches towards the flames. It pulls out a metal poker, the end of which is perpendicular to the long pole, twisting in some strange kind of design, a design that is bright red-orange, nearly molten from the flames. The air around it sizzles and wavers, heat waves rising from the smoldering metal.

Oh god. I think-I think that's a brand.

I let out a hoarse cry as I try and buck the alien off of me, but it's too strong, too heavy.

No-no-no-no-no!

The Dravec leader's eyes glint, the light from the burning poker reflecting in its glassy gaze and off of the metal mask encircling the lower half of its face.

It lowers the brand, and I can already feel its heat as it nears, sweat pouring off my face, my heart hammering in my too tight chest, my teeth clenched together as I try to prepare myself for the pain, as I try to stifle the scream I know is building in my ravaged throat.

I press myself as hard as I can into the dirt, trying to squirm away from the unbearable heat nearing my shoulder, the sizzling sound growing, the metallic smell filing my nostrils, hotter and hotter and-

An earth shattering roar bellows its fury, so loud my hands flinch in the grasp of the Dravec leader as they try to automatically cover my ears.

Silence descends as we all freeze.

My heart lifts and sinks at the same time. I know that roar. I heard it on the streets of Manhattan before we were taken.

I turn my head, and Korg and I lock eyes as the aliens look around for the source of the roar. He gives me a nod that he also recognizes it, that this is our last chance to get out of here. I don't know if any of the traps the Dravec laid were Hulk-sized, but I don't want to stick around to find out.

Korg uses the distraction, shooting out his hands to reach up and grip an ankle of each of the Dravec hunters standing over him, and, stone muscles bulging, he yanks backwards, sending both of them sprawling to the ground.

The Dravec leader's grip on me loosens as it half turns to face the threat, the burning brand lifting away. I move, jerking my hands free and rolling onto my back as the alien staggers off of me. My foot meets its chin, knocking its head back as its mask cracks, the pieces clattering to the dirt. The branding tool falls, and I swipe it midair, continuing the motion to swing out blindly.

It lets out an amphibious shriek as the weapon collides with the side of its face, knocking it to the ground.

I lurch to my feet, staggering back and dropping the brand as the Dravec leader pushes itself to its hands and knees, its head slowly lifting to look back at me.

"Oh _man_." My eyes widen as I stumble back a few steps, the sounds of Korg's battle filling my ears. The Dravec's mask had shattered, revealing the hideous mouth of fangs and the holes tearing its face where a nose should be, and a blistering burn on its cheekbone, a glistening pink brand still sizzling.

It's like fetal Voldemort got tossed in the cauldron with the Predator.

It lunges for me with an enraged shriek, but I'm already moving, flipping over it's crouched body and landing in a crouch of my own. "Sorry, man, but to be fair, you were gonna brand me with that thing first."

I fire a web, the ends of it attaching to a weapons rack that I yank back hard. It comes flying, a mess of wood and daggers and spears that slam into the Dravec leader and crush the alien beneath its weight.

My webshooter lets out an ominous beep, and I glance quickly down to see a measly twelve percent of my web fluid is left. Crap.

"If you aren't too busy-" Korg shouts, and I see him locked in battle with the two remaining hunters. I charge forward, shooting another web, not for the aliens, but for the pole tethering the raptor-like alien horses. A sharp tug rips the pole from the ground, the tethers sliding free.

The vicious looking creatures seem to realize they're no longer tied to anything, and with a burst of trilling screeches, they charge into the camp. Their massive legs carry them across the clearing in a handful of steps, their bodies plowing through the structures and cases of supplies and weapons like they aren't even there.

Korg throws himself to the side, but the startled Dravec aren't as quick. The alien raptors trample the first hunter, and the second tries to leap out of the way, but is snatched up in one of the creature's huge jaws.

This is either the most badass or the stupidest thing I have ever done.

The alien raptors are charging towards me, and I stand my ground.

"Please don't eat me, please don't eat me, please don't eat me." At the last second, I dodge to the side as the first alien raptor reaches me, and my hand shoots up to grip one of the huge spikes sprouting from its back. "Whoa!"

My arm is nearly wrenched out of its socket as my feet lift from the ground, my body slamming into the alien raptor's as I reach up with my other hand to seize the saddle.

Either it doesn't notice or it doesn't care that I am now desperately clinging to its back, because it keeps charging. I glance warily back, but the other alien raptors are more intent on getting away than they are on eating me.

"Korg!" I shout, craning my neck to see over the charging creatures as my feet lift up stick to the side of the alien raptor's thick hide.

Korg is sprinting to catch up, but waves me on. "Go, New Miek, go! Be free! Long live the revolution!"

"Korg!" But he's lost from view as the alien raptors charge into the jungle.

Pulling myself up into the saddle, I cling for dear life to the beast, already imagining how I'm going to tell Ned I rode a freaking dinosaur if I actually survive this.

Another roar shakes the trees around us, and the creatures pull up short at the sound, intimidated and unsure. In the distance, there's a break in the canopy, revealing a grassy expanse of hills through the trees, and I see billows of smoke rising up into the sky.

That's the Hulk down there, I'm sure of it, and if he's there, maybe Bucky is too! I am just wondering how the hell I'm going to get the alien raptors to charge down there without kicking my heels into its sides and getting my face bitten off, when a shadow streaks above us.

I look up, gaping at the alien ship, black and twisting and streaked in red, as it soars above the jungle canopy in the direction of the smoke, in the direction of Hulk's bellowing voice. There's a fight going down, and it's a big one.

The alien raptors charge forward, following the ship, probably conditioned to associate it with food or the promise of violence, and I just hold on the best I can, trying to make myself small and light and inconspicuous as we charge towards the battle.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **SO. Crazy story. Yesterday I got a mystery package in the mail, and even though I asked literally everyone I could think of, including Amazon who assured me it was not a scam, no one I know sent it to me. What was in the mystery package, you may ask?**

 **A tablet and attachable keyboard.**

 **I am blown away by the generosity of this mystery gift giver, who somehow knew I needed a computer and sent it to me anonymously. If you guys took a moment to pray for me, I want to thank you, because clearly, a miracle occurred! Stunned. I seriously still can't believe it.**

 **Special thanks to Pippin Strange, Beta Supreme. She's been reading sneak previews for a future fic in this series and has** **been giving me the BEST feedback and fangirling. As usual, she is killing it in the beta department and is such a genius writer. Have you guys read her fic Where They Go? This last chapter actually made me CRY. It's so damn good.**

 **The amount of love you guys had for Korg rocked my world. He was an unexpected addition to me too, so I'm happy you enjoyed him too! XD I'm so glad you guys enjoyed that last chapter so much! And the Wanda and Loki section got a ton of love too! YAY! That thrills me. I thought long and hard about them meeting, about the connection between his staff and her powers, though he doesn't know that yet. Definitely will have more interactions from them coming.**

 **Also, I thought it would be fun if after the end of your review (SERIOUSLY BLESS EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU THAT LEAVES ME A REVIEW, I ADORE YOU), if you could tell me where you're from! State, Country, whatever you are comfortable sharing! I know I have a couple out of country readers and would love to see if there are more, or how many we have here in the States! You guys, your support and kindness overwhelm me. I feel very loved.**

 **Thank you,**

* * *

 **readingisapriority: ikr?**

 **harold-the-rabbit: Omg thank you! I love writing Peter! And Korg! XD Thanks so much for your kind thoughts!**

 **KHARAKI TAKAN: Valkyrie escaped with the other Asgardians when Thor's ship was attacked by the Dravec. She led them to** **safety. And thank you!**

 **DarylDixon'sLover: I hope so too!**

 **Blaney: Thank you! technology problems really do suck! I am beyond surprised and grateful for my mystery fix! I'm so glad you liked Korg. And the grandmaster thing was great XD. Thanks!**

 **Heroes21: Revolution! WHOO! XD**

 **MewWinx96: THANKS! So glad you liked this last chapter, and hope this one didn't disappoint! Hope you are ready for the next one!**

 **EmilyF.6: Thank you very much! Yay that you love this last chapter and Korg and the Wanda and Loki scene! That makes me so happy! More to come!**

 **sparklydog9: Yay Korg!**

 **Kairianna864: Thank you very much! I worked hard on Korg and watched a loooooot of Thor Ragnarok to get his voice down. XD**

 **Bethisafan77: Thanks! :D :D :D :D**

 **StarStepper: Omg thank you! Makes me so happy to hear when people really enjoy my writing! A fractured elbow sounds painful!**

 **monkeybaby: Thanks!**

 **Puppens101: Thank you! It really has been a rough period, but things are clearly starting to look up! :O Glad you enjoyed!**

 **Lailuh: Thank you for your patience and kindness! It really means so much to me!**

 **Kirby Lane: Why thank you! Carpal Tunnel SUCKS for sure. I hate being limited on how much I can do. Especially when it's something I love. We are most definitely getting this battle started! There will definitely be more interactions between Wanda and Loki, as I think it's a super interesting dynamic, since his staff gave her her powers, and Loki is not one to shy away from power. Thanks for your support!**

 **EleanorGardner: Korg! XD Thank you so much!**

 **NyxieDust: Thank you very much! Korg and Peter are such a great duo, and don't worry, we will see more Korg! Thank you so much for your kind words and support!**

 **Guest: LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION**

 **KiernanCo: Yasssss! Let's get these Avengers back together! Thanks so much!**

 **LoonyLovegood1981: They feel so long to me XD But don't worry, the next one will be super long, even if I split them up! Ragnarok is hilarious! I love that one! XD Thank you so much!**

 **Ghost Staffy: THANK YOU! I love my bingers! lol! Tony's upgrade does indeed contain vibranium, and we will see about Shuri. ;) Korg and Peter should definitely have more adventures together. XD They are hilarious to write**

 **Sara B: Omg I loved hearing all your thoughts about the chapter. That is just the best to me. I also had no plans to include Korg, but he found his way in there! XD And YES, if I were stuck on an alien planet and found out Thor was there too somewhere, I'd be hightailing it in his direction. XD George of the Jungle cracked me up too. LOL. Poor Peter. I'm so glad you loved that chapter and hope you liked this one as well!**

 **cargumentluv: YAY! I'm so glad you enjoyed! Hope you liked this one with more Clint and T'Challa and Tony!**

 **Shannon: Yay life! lol! Glad you liked the game! I don't have a playstation unfortunately so I am restricted to watching clips on youtube. I did pass on your message to PippinStrange, (we had a good laugh), and she got right to posting a new update! lol! Hope you enjoyed that as well! I love the retelling of Down Came the Rain, too. SO beautiful.**

 **screechyfangirl: Yay!**

 **Beachchick4: Thank you! Oh my word! You are too kind! Lots more suspense to come!**

 **GinaBoo: Thanks for your kind words! It's been rough, but it seems like things are finally starting to turn around again! I also really enjoyed Wanda and Loki interacting, and I'm glad you did too! Yay KORG! omg he is so funny. Thank you again for your kindness and well wishes!**

 **Luckias: Thank you so much! I never planned on Korg, he just kind of happened, so I'm glad he got such an overwhelming response!**

 **BeccaRave: YAS. More to come!**

 **TeamCaptain2016: Thank you very much! You're so kind! :)**

 **Ravenclaw Black Mamba: More Bucky and Peter fluff coming up! If not in the next chapter, then definitely soon!**

 **gandalf537: Yay! Missed you guys! Thank you for your understanding and your kindness, I really appreciate it. I'M SO GLAD YOU ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER! I LOVED hearing your thoughts! Wanda is such a badass, just you wait. Tony and Shuri and Peter and Korg! Eeeee! Im so glad you loved Korg as much as I loved writing him!**

 **AppleSpongeCake: I missed you guys so much! You don't even know! Much love!**

 **icotnoir: Thank you! Will do! Glad you enjoyed!**

 **ImmortalDragon123456: Thanks!**

 **Writer-at-Heart0: Thank you!**

 **Leiah Cloud: Omg you are too kind! Ct is awful! Really hoping I don't wind up needing surgery at some point. And yes to backing up computers! I only type on google doc, and have for many months because I knew my laptop's death was coming! Terrible stuff! Thank you so much!**

 **Guest: KORG! :D I'm so happy you enjoyed the Wanda meets Loki bit, and I totally agree, would have been so interesting to see her in the first film! Thank you so much!**

* * *

 **You guys may have guessed it, but we are at the big epic finale! I haven't decided whether it's going to be one big** **chapter or split it into two, because I've already written so much for it, and I still have a ways to go! Either way, the next chapter is going to be INTENSE.**

 **COMING UP:**

 **Chapter Sixteen: Riders in the Sky**

 **This is it. The big one. The fate of our heroes is decided in the ultimate battle of Avengers vs Dravec**

"Their brands were still on fire and their hooves were made of steel  
Their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel  
A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky  
For he saw the riders coming hard and he heard their mournful cry"

-Johnny Cash "Riders in the Sky"


	16. Riders in the Sky: Part One

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Riders in the Sky PART ONE**

* * *

 **...**

 **...**

 **Wanda Maximoff**

His eyes are opening.

Panting, sweat making my ponytail stick to the back of my neck, I lean over him, hardly daring to breathe. "Vis?"

Pale blue eyes lock onto mine, rings and lines swirling into focus. It's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. He blinks up at me, his face a picture of calm, and his hand reaches up to brush away the strands of hair sticking to my skin.

"Are you alright?" I ask in a soft voice, my throat catching. Heimdall's eyes are on me, but I can't look away from Vision's, not even to spare a glance to his wounded chest.

Vision seems to consider this, his gaze losing its focus as it drifts from my face to his chest, then to my hands, still hovering above him. "Well, yes. I'm with you."

A choked laugh escapes from me, and I catch his hand in my own, pressing his knuckles to my cheek. "I thought I'd lost you," I whisper.

Something tender crosses his expression, and slowly, carefully he sits up, his breathing shifting as he does so. It isn't perfect, my healing. Heimdall's eyes were invaluable in aiding my powers to move where they needed to go, and I'd made significantly more progress than I'd managed on my own.

Still, a raised, white scar stretches across Vision's chest, and I know if we make it back home, he will need a team of scientists and engineers, and perhaps the Cradle itself to fully heal, to reverse the damage done.

Vision blinks several times, putting a hand to his chest as his unique gaze settles upon Heimdall. "I...don't believe we've met."

"Heimdall," the warrior clasps Vision's hand.

Vision's eyes narrow in recognition. "You are Asgardian."

"That I am."

Those pale blue eyes move to me, his confusion evident on his face. "How did this happen? Where is Captain Rogers?"

My lips part to answer him, just as a deep, bellowing roar rips through the air, the echoes of it reverberating through the hollow log we are hiding in. All three of us stiffen at once.

"Was that-"

Loki's pale face appears in the opposite entrance, his eyes wide and lips pressed together. "We need to go. Now."

"Dr. Banner," Vision says, looking back at the newcomer, then at me. "That was him."

"Hardly," Loki replies darkly.

We move from the log, and I carefully help Vision to his feet, hovering about him worriedly until he grips my hand tightly in his, giving me a small, reassuring smile. As we emerge, we all look to the horizon, above the thick canopy of trees making up the jungle. Plumes of smoke curl up into the sky, just as thick, gray clouds start to form, rumbling their disquiet.

"Thor," Heimdall remarks at the clouds, then looks to Loki. "Your brother is in trouble."

"If he's found that beast, I have no doubt of it." Loki's pale face remains pointed towards the smoke.

"We have to help them." I glance up at Vision, who nods his affirmation that he is alright, that he can do this.

Loathe though I am to charge into a fight again, when Vision has only just opened his eyes, we cannot stand by and do nothing while our friends fight for their lives. The image of the blast ripping through Vision flits before my eyes, seizing my stomach, my heart, my throat.

I grip his hand tighter, my gaze darkening.

It will not happen again. I won't lose anyone else. Not today.

* * *

 **Peter Parker **

Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.

No big deal, Parker, just clinging for your life to a creature that could snap back at any moment and tear your head off. It's like that gif of the cartoon dog sitting at a table in the middle of a burning house. This is fine. I'm fine. What the hell is that from, anyways?

I slide fully onto the saddle, gripping the alien raptor by the spikes protruding down its spine as the pack of them charges through the jungle. The sounds of the battle grow even louder with each passing second; the sounds of Hulk's enraged bellows, the firing of plasma rifles, the roaring thrusters of a ship soaring through the sky, the amphibious shrieks of the Dravec.

I can't guess is if the alien raptor pack heading into battle will be a help or hindrance. As much as I hope that they will turn against their brutal, sadistic masters, they could just as easily be following some silent whistle, some unsaid command to join the Dravec in the hunt.

God, that would suck.

Hey guys, it's me, Peter, here to help save the day! Oh these? These are my alien raptors I used to escape. Oh, they're trying to tear your face off? My bad.

We clear the trees just in time for me to glance up and see clouds forming up in the blue sky, unfolding and roiling and growing like those time lapse videos in nature documentaries. The white quickly curdles to gray, thunder growling ominously in their depths.

Either this is insane alien weather, or…

My eyes drop to the battle in the middle of a massive expanse of sprawling green hills, framed by the towering trees of the jungle.

An alien ship circles overhead, hovering above at least ten Dravec hunters, heavily armed, who are hurtling themselves at a group in its center. My eyes go round at the sight of the Hulk, towering over the rest, bellowing his rage and seizing the hunter off of his back, only to rip him in two.

The Hulk crouches, gorilla like fists slamming into the earth, and my heart lifts as Bucky runs up the green behemoth's back, leaping as he reaches his shoulders. The Winter Soldier unleashes a barrage of energy blasts from his alien plasma rifle midair before he hits the ground and rolls, coming up on his knees to shoot down a Dravec lunging for him.

So. Freaking. Badass.

A glint of red, white and blue spins through the air to decapitate a Dravec hunter, continuing its curve only to be caught by none other than Captain America, who spins with it and plows the vibranium shield into another's skull.

Horrible and life threatening as this situation is, my fanboy heart can't help but nearly squeal with nerdish delight. I can die happy after this, figuratively of course, I really would like to live, but this is the coolest and most terrifying moment of my freaking life.

And then, lightning cleaves the air. It shoots down from the nearly black clouds billowing overhead, a strike so jagged and bright, it turns everything white, and as it hits the ground, it splinters off in every direction, shattering through six alien hunters.

My heart stops entirely.

"YES!" I pump my arm up in the air, exhilarated, drowning in adrenaline as the raptor pack surges forward through the grasses towards the battle, towards my friends, towards THE FREAKING GOD OF THUNDER HIMSELF.

Thor.

I'm about to fight with THOR.

The Asgardian lands on the ground, eyes glowing blue white, sparks shooting off of his hands, just as another surge of hunters emerges from the distant treeline, and two Dravec ships join the third still circling.

My heart is beating so vibrantly, I can barely think. All I know is that this is it, the big, ultimate battle between Avengers and Dravec. We are outnumbered, by a lot, and more will just keep coming. But I'm fighting with some of the biggest, baddest warriors in the universe, and I am so pumped by what I have just seen, I have no doubt in my mind that we will take every single hunter down.

We got this. We so got this.

I am so swept up in the excitement of it all, I can forget any lingering fear and pain. I move into a crouch upon the alien raptor's back, the soles of my boots sticking firmly to the saddle as I raise myself up, readying my body and my webshooters, in case I need to take the dinosaur like creatures down.

So close, I'm so close to the battle I can see Bucky's head lift, can see his eyes locking on mine.

This is it, Parker, your big entrance. Don't screw this up. You're charging into battle on the back of an alien raptor, in a herd of them. (Herd? Pack?) You're the calvary. These are the big leagues of the Avengers, and it's time to show them what Spiderman is made of.

An old movie quote comes to mind, one I've never dared to use while in the suit on account of the tattle tale protocol Karen dutifully reminded me of before I could ever attempt it. But Karen is offline, Mr. Stark isn't here, and May will never know.

So, shooting a shit-eating grin at Bucky, who just took down two alien hunters at once, I whoop loudly and yell, "YIPPEE-KI-YAY-MOTHERFU-"

" _-_ -Finish that sentence, and I'm telling Aunt May."

My head whips around so fast, I nearly lose my balance and fall off my alien steed.

"Mr. Stark!"

Brilliant red and gold streak past me as Ironman blasts through the sky, hands raising, repulsors firing at the near army of alien hunters surrounding our teammates.

He's here. HE'S HERE.

I don't even care that he ruined my entrance, that he cut me off before I could unleash the most badass quote of my superhero career. He's _here_.

"I leave you alone for a week, and I find you riding dinosaurs and cursing like a sailor? Clearly you've been hanging around Rogers too much. Hey-Steve, where do you get off corrupting my intern with your filthy language?"

I leap off the alien raptor, spinning midair to barrel into a Dravec hunter, just as my ride rips into a second one, the creatures turning on their masters just as I had hoped. My fist slams into the hunter's face, and then I catch sight of a glint of black. Flipping back, I dodge the swipe of its wrist blade as it surges to its feet.

It's easy to hear the smile in Captain America's voice as he yells back to Mr. Stark. "You were taking your sweet time to get here, so I figured I'd share a few pop culture references I've picked up while we waited. Thought you'd be happy."

"I did my own corrupting, thank you!" I add as I dodge two more blows, and then as the wrist blade comes down on me a third time, the alien's forearm is caught by a crimson and gold armored gauntlet. The Dravec's head whips to the side, just as a blue tinged blast of energy erupts from Ironman's palm, blasting the hunter into the air.

Between the adrenaline and the relief and the overly exhausted hysteria lifting through my body, I feel like I might explode-laugh, cry, scream, collapse, all seem equally likely. So when Ironman turns to me, I consider it a freaking miracle that I just look up at him, grin, and say, "Hi, Mr. Stark."

"Hi, kid."

I can't see his face through his helmet, but I can hear the relief, the fondness in his metal tinged voice.

Then I notice the silver threads lining his suit, but before I can ask, my spider-sense goes haywire. We both whirl at the same time, and then I lunge, snatching a sparking spear mid-air before it can connect with Ironman's chest.

Mr. Stark looks down at it briefly. "Can I see that? Thanks."

He takes it out of my hand, winds his arm back, and hurtles the spear into the air. It moves so fast I can barely see it, and then it plows straight through the hunter's throat. It sinks to its knees and collapses.

Ironman turns to me, and just as my senses blare in warning again, he reaches forward and yanks me out of the way by my suit. I whirl just to see him grappling with one of the alien raptors, his metal encased hands holding back the straining, snapping jaws. The beast shoves forward so hard, Mr. Stark's boots slide down into the dirt.

Eh, so much for them being on our side. I quickly fire a web at the alien's huge feet, entrapping them in a huge wad of it attached to a single thick strand leading to my webshooters.

"Hey, kid, what have we told you about bringing home strays as pets?" Mr. Stark asks, voice strained as he wrestles with the giant head snapping for him.

"Uh...was that a rule? I feel like that wasn't a rule."

I yank hard on the webbing, and the alien's feet cinch together just as Ironman gets a firm grip on its jaw. He wrenches it to the right as I pull left, and the creature goes down hard just before Ironman's fist slams into its temple. It goes limp, and we stand back, breathing hard.

"Well, it is now," Mr. Stark says. "No pets."

Explosions rip the air, and I whip my head around to see silver streaking through the gray sky, the metal illuminated by the reds and orange flames bursting at the tree line. War Machine unleashes his missiles, and I suddenly realize that weapons and blasts I distinctly remember as having no effect on the Dravec on Earth are suddenly ripping them apart.

I turn a quizzical look to Mr. Stark, and he gestures to the silver lining the plates of his armor. "We leveled up. Wait till you meet the new kid on the block."

* * *

 **Bucky Barnes**

The scrawny little idiot lives.

And not only is he miraculously still alive, but he's charging in on a pack of vicious looking alien beasts like one of those cowboys in the old, black and white Roy Rogers flicks Steve would sometimes make me go see with him back before...before everything.

That dark, hollow part of me that had been ready to swallow me up, ready to mutilate and murder every goddamn alien on this planet, settles back.

The kid is alive. A lot more battered than the last time I saw him, but alive. Now I just have to make sure he stays that way. A little easier said than done when he's darting around the battlefield faster than my eyes can keep up with, firing webs and delivering punches and kicks as he goes.

It's impressive. Peter's quick moves and sporadic maneuvers assist each of us in turn, while keeping the Dravec thoroughly distracted, setting us up with almost easy takedowns.

Banner bellows somewhere behind me, the beast unleashed at last, plowing through lines of hunters that come spilling out from the jungle like ants, our fight practically alerting every single alien on the planet to our location.

It hadn't taken long for our rescue party to be discovered by Dravec hunters. They'd ambushed us about a mile away from here, and this time, Banner hadn't held back. He'd unleashed the creature I'd never had the pleasure of meeting before this, and our battle had quickly taken us to open ground.

Above, the sky darkens, thunder rumbling in competition to the Hulk's savage growls, and I see Thor leaping into the air, lightning racing up his outstretched arms. When his body lands, the impact so hard it creates a crater in the earth that I can feel all the way from where I am standing, the lightning shoots from his hands to snake through the air like white fire, spearing the aliens aiming their plasma rifles at him.

Ironman and War Machine work in tandem to bring the three ships circling above us down. So far those crafts have resisted firing down on us, though I know they have the capabilities to do so. Likely because they want to bring us down in hand to hand combat with their warrior's weapons so they can take our bodies as trophies.

Gods and monsters.

Steve and I share a glance.

"Life's gotten a hell of a lot weirder since us," I comment, wrenching the nearest Dravec into an ironclad hold as Steve raises his shield and slams it down upon its skull. I release it, and the alien falls lifelessly to the ground.

"What makes you say that?" he gives me a wry grin.

A flash of his eyes tells me to duck, and I drop to the ground as he tosses his shield with a grunt of effort. I hear it slicing the air as it spins, and then there's a dull thwunk as it makes impact with another hunter.

I surge forward, drawing my two jagged, alien daggers as I duck under Steve's still outstretched arm to face the Dravec advancing on his exposed back.

It changes direction at the last minute, slashing wildly at me with the blades jutting out from its wrists. I raise my own daggers in response, the metal singing and sparking as they clash against each other, an impact I can feel through my arms.

The alien draws its arms back only to spin and slash again. I duck beneath the blows, dodging to the side and stabbing at the exposed flesh between armored plates, just under where its arm meets its shoulder. It screams, going to its knees, and I drive my second knife into its throat.

"You're right," I pant as I straighten, turning as Steve calls his shield back to him and attaches it to the holster on his forearm. "None of this is strange at all."

"All in a day's work."

The ground shudders as Thor lands beside us, an alien spear in his hands and black blood splattered up his arms. The three of us shift, going back to back as six hunters close in on us, weapons raised.

We mirror them, and Thor says, "Just like old times, is it not?"

"A bit," Steve agrees.

"Let's do the ThunderCap."

"Just because Tony called it that, doesn't mean we have to."

"The ThunderCap?" I deadpan.

Steve sighs, the sound full of longsuffering. "You may want to get down, Buck."

I raise a brow, but ready myself to do so.

Thor is grinning, full of excitement that raises the hairs along my neck and arms with its electric anticipation. "Ready when you are, my friend."

"Now!" Steve goes down on one knee, raising his shield up over his head. I'm already on the ground, arms covering my face, my eyes squeezing shut at what I guess is coming.

I hear Thor yell, hear the blasts of plasma rifles as the aliens fire, and then my skin is buzzing with electricity. There's a sharp clank of sound as Thor brings the alien spear down upon Steve's shield, and then the world explodes.

Even with my eyes shut, with my arms clamped over my head, I can see the bright white light that shatters in every direction, lightning streaking out with an explosion of sound and heat.

The ThunderCap.

Steve and I straighten, electricity still buzzing in the air as we survey the damage, the ring of obliterated Dravec parts and black scorch marks all around us.

"That was SO AWESOME!" screeches Peter a little distance away, half hidden behind Ironman.

"Did we forget about the rules? Teammates are always to be given a heads up when the ThunderCap is in play," Stark grinds out with irritation, brushing at the black scorch marks, still sizzling, along his shoulder.

The three small ships are nothing more than scrap metal and flames burning along one hillside, a victorious War Machine stalking from the wreckage. Hulk breathes heavily, teeth grit together as he growls and kicks at the debris. His hands are curled into fists, clearly not ready for the fight to be over.

"Everyone alright?" asks Steve, and surprisingly, we are.

"That wasn't so bad," Thor scoffs, rolling his shoulders and kicking at a fallen plasma rifle. "In my adventures, I have taken on worse odds, fought in far fiercer battles. This was child's play."

"Did you really just say that?" Rhodes demands skeptically. "Are you trying to jinx us and bring down the whole goddamn armada?"

"Superstitious nonsense," disagrees Thor, gesturing to the empty sky, the scattered bodies.

"Did we miss the fight?"

I turn, a smirk curving my lips at the sight of Sam Wilson gliding down from the sky. He gives me a little grin, reaching out a hand. "Good to see you, man."

"Likewise," I say, as I clap my hand against his. Beyond him, emerging from the tree line, stride T'Challa and Hawkeye.

"Sucks for you, Barton," Stark calls out to him, sweeping a hand over the battleworn ground. "You missed all the action. How many have you killed? Just the one? I'm at nine."

"Day isn't over yet."

"Where's Wanda and Vision?" asks Stark, looking to Steve.

As Steve answers, I move closer to Peter, my eyes taking in the burn on his arm, the bruises barely visible around his throat, peeking over the high collar of his suit, the mottled purples and cuts lining his face.

He looks at me with equal concern, his eyes darting to my side, still covered in the gray bandages. For whatever reason, this kind of pisses me off.

"I'm fine," I say in a low voice, and his big eyes dart back up to my face as he pales slightly, like he knows he's in trouble.

I open my mouth to demand just what the hell he was thinking by running off to be bait, when he suddenly goes rigid, his gaze shooting over my shoulder as his lips part to cry a warning. I whirl, eyes scanning the horizon for the threat, just as the spear embeds itself into the back of Steve's right shoulder.

The impact sends him to one knee, his mouth parting in shock, in pain, and as I lift my plasma rifle, I see a slim arrow shooting through the air, sailing far beyond the treeline. A second later, a Dravec falls to the ground, dead.

Stark is the first one to reach Steve, his gauntleted hands steadying the man before he can fall. The color has drained from Steve's face, beads of sweat already forming across his forehead, but he says in a breathy, strained voice, "It's ok. Didn't...didn't hit anything major."

"Let's let the ones who didn't just get skewered be the judge of that, shall we?" Stark suggests, voice tight. "F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"

I don't hear the A.I.'s response, because Clint jogs up to us, his eyes on the trees. "We've got incoming. A lot of it."

"Let them come," Thor steps forward. "There is fight in me yet."

"Can it, Point Break," Stark snaps as he yanks the spear from Steve's shoulder. I step forward, fists clenched as my friend cries out through clenched teeth just as Tony raises his gauntlet and sprays some kind of foam into the wound, which solidifies and seals it almost instantly.

T'Challa surveys the open field. "We are too exposed here. We should take cover within the trees."

"Too late," Clint nods towards the horizon, and we all look.

Six massive ships materialize, easily three times the size as the three before, their camouflaging technology dissipating as they hover above the jungle canopy. Their bay doors open, and Dravec warriors begin spilling out and forming tight, organized formations.

These are not like what's been hunting us. These have armor that encases their entire bodies, face included, and who are equipped with a great deal more weapons. The Dravec facing us are not the hunters, fighting to gain position among their elite by bringing back trophies of seasoned warriors. This is their fighting force, the hunters who have ascended the military ladder to join the ranks of their soldiers.

We'd held our own so far, but half of us are injured, exhausted, and weak. There is only so far that adrenaline and survival instincts can carry a person. The other half may be fresh, but they don't know this enemy, haven't been hunted by them.

The Dravec have the numbers, the weapons, the home field advantage.

Steve and I share a grim look, thinking the same thing, and my eyes move to his injured shoulder.

What had seemed like a sure victory had only been a taste of the real battle.

The Dravec have finally shown their true faces. And it might just be the last thing we ever see.

* * *

 **Tony Stark**

The incorporation of vibranium threads in my suit have not only provided me with a significantly more solid barrier between me and the aliens fists, but are also powering and amping up my repulsors. Blasts that barely tickled them back on Earth now send them stumbling back with burns or holes in their bodies depending on the aim and proximity. It's superb design, the metal both shielding and acting as a suped up battery for the clean energy coursing through my suit.

Still, despite the upgrades and the numbers, things aren't looking good.

They look like shit.

An army advances on us, not unlike the Chitauri, but this time, half our people are running on steam and injured to boot.

My eyes flick to Rogers, his body held stiffly, his face pale as he readies his shield. Barnes stays close to his side, an alien plasma rifle he'd lifted from a dismembered corpse in his hands as a trio of soldiers advance on them.

Neither are in great shape.

So I lend a hand, swooping down and snatching a Dravec up by its shoulders before shooting back high in the air. "Wilson, think fast!" I say, and then hurl the alien into the sky.

Sam dives, arms outstretched as if he will catch it, then he pulls up at the last minute, and the hunter goes plummeting to the ground with a sickening crunch. "Oops," Sam grins. "Missed."

"Nice going, butterfingers," I call out, shooting down to the battlefield below.

Clint's voice floods the comms. " _Seven, eight, eleven-"_

"Where'd you learn to count?" I demand as I blast a Dravec warrior with both hands that had been aiming what looked suspiciously like an alien version of a rocket launcher at the kid.

" _Three at once, Stark. Read em and weep._ "

I land on the ground at the kid's back as he shoots two web meshes into the alien's helmets, blocking their vision. He charges at them, leaping into the air with his feet tucked and arms spread before twisting mid air into a double spinning kick that connects with their skulls and sends them crashing to the ground.

"Nice moves, kid," I commend as I slam my fist into a Dravec's jaw and dodge a swipe of its wrist blade. My fingers clench, activating a new weapon that surges up to my forearm in a whir of clicks and shifting metal panels. Six metal shards go shooting out, wires attached to their ends and back to my arm.

They find their homes embedded into the armor of six Dravec soldiers, who look down, unimpressed.

"Wait for it," I say, and then electric bolts of energy surge through the wires and explode as they make contact with the steel shards stabbing into black metal chest plates. I release the wires as the six go flying back.

"Hear that, Barton? It's the sound of six at once."

He doesn't respond. Either too jealous or too preoccupied with staying alive to do so. There's a sound at my back, a sound that jolts through me like my electric shock backfired, and I whirl.

Peter's on the ground, and that's all I need to know before I am blasting any alien in close proximity to dust and surging forward to plow my metal covered fist into a helmet so hard it cracks. A Dravec lunges, grappling me from behind and trapping my arms at my sides. I blast up into the air, fire my thrusters on full and spin so fast its grip loosens, then releases entirely, and I fire a missile that takes it straight into the ground with an explosion that wipes out two others.

I land hard, the earth shuddering beneath me as Peter staggers to his feet, eyes wide.

"You good?" I demand, eyes scanning him for new injuries over his old ones.

His expression is sheepish as he admits. "Yeah, yeah I'm-I just tripped."

I stare. "How you managed to survive this long is beyond me."

"Bucky helped. A lot. And a rock alien named Korg."

"Ok. For the rest of this fight, you stick with the buddy system. Got that?"

Christ, he doesn't even have his mask. As he gives me what he must suppose is a reassuring grin, we dive back into the battle, Peter looking vulnerable and young and oh so breakable in his dirty onesie.

T'Challa slides across the grass in front of me as I take on two at once, his claws out and shining as he kicks off one alien, crosses his clawed hands into an X in front of him, then slashes out as he reaches another alien's armored throat.

Slivers of black armor slide to the ground like ribbons, and the alien falls hard to its knees, then its back, its throat open and ebony blood spilling down its front. As the Black Panther lands in a crouch, a Dravec warrior unleashes what looks like a jagged blade attached to a taser and lunges for him.

Holding my two in an ironclad headlock, I watch as T'Challa leaps back, spins over the blade, and claws at the back of the alien's knees. It shrieks and staggers, whirling and swinging its blade wide. The king grabs the swinging arm with one hand and slashes down with his other with a warrior's cry.

Wails rip through the air as the Dravec looks at the bleeding stump where its arm used to be.

"Heads up," I call, slamming the two skulls of the aliens I am holding together and shoving them forward as T'Challa, severed arm and alien sword in hand, decapitates them.

"Majesty," I acknowledge with a dip of my head.

"We are losing this fight," he says in response.

"You call that losing?"

T'Challa gestures to my right, where a struggling Steve is now being backed by both Barnes and the kid, all three of them a sorry sight as their battered forms face off against menacing, freshly armored soldiers.

Rhodes and Sam are valiantly trying to take the force out from above, but its making them easy targets, more and more plasma blasts and projectiles being fired at them until they are entirely focused on not getting shot out of the sky.

Clint seems to be doing ok from his perch, but even the Hulk and Thor seem to be taking on more than they can handle.

My stomach sinks, tightens. We need more firepower, we need a goddamn army of our own, we need-

Crimson light blasts from the tree line in a whirlwind of streaking energy. It ravages through two of the ships, devastating bolts diving through the metal panels and bursting out the other side in a massive explosion. The burning ships collide with each other with a horrific crash of sound, smoke pouring from their backs as they plummet to the earth to take out a chunk of the ground force.

We need a witch.

* * *

 **Wanda Maximoff **

Ripping through two of the Dravec ships had cleaved something inside me, the force weakening my knees, leaving me breathless. I stumble back into Vision, who steadies me with a worried glance.

"I'm fine," I gasp out, blinking away the spots and the nauseating dizziness. Too much. I had expelled too much energy too fast, without taking the time to gather my power beforehand.

But I have more in me, and there's no time to wait.

My eyes begin to focus, enough to see Loki watching me with a strange look glinting in his eyes...something curious, measuring.

"Wanda?" Vision's grip on my arms tightens, and I see the Dravec forces regrouping. Turning towards us.

I straighten, inhaling deeply as I stalk forward from the treeline, crimson energy pulsating around my arms, burning from my eyes. I'd expelled a great deal of power, but I am far from through. I am exhausted, shaken, but I am tired of being hunted.

Baring my teeth, I raise my hands, fingers curled as I draw psionic energy from the very air around me until the palms of my hands are warm and bright with it. Guns are raised in my direction.

"Go to hell," I growl as I drop to one knee and slam my hands upon the earth.

The ground splits, scarlet light shooting out like lightning in the cracks, glowing and burning and surging towards the enemy in a fatal rush. Hunters fall as the earth quakes beneath their feet. They shriek as the brilliant energy blasts through them, tearing them to pieces or sending their bodies flying.

Straightening, feeling unsteadier by the second, I turn to look over my shoulder. Vision's feet lift off the ground as he takes to the sky, the stone upon his head glowing like the sun. Heimdall unsheathes his sword, face grim as he charges into battle.

And Loki...Loki holds my gaze even as he draws twin long knives and flips them in his hands, as he races forward and slits the throat of a Dravec hunter trying to get to its feet.

Then he disappears into the chaos.

My eyes lift as a brilliant yellow beam burns into the legions of warriors, ruthless in its intensity, and there is Vision, hovering midair, his cape flapping behind him, looking glorious and healed and-

A target, I realize, as hunters below lift their weapons.

I let a searing aura of crimson burn around me, brighter and brighter, drawing their attention. My palms face each other, fingers curling like I hold a ball, and a single spot of red energy begins to form there, growing with every second.

Look at me.

Here I am. I am the target. I am the bigger threat.

And as their attention turns towards me, Sam dives down from above, wings tucking as he plummets. His body spins as he nears the ground, and then his wings flare wide, the razor sharp metal edges slicing through Dravec aliens like they are made of butter.

One goes for his back, and I thrust out my arms, sending my energy sphere hurtling towards the Dravec. Sam takes off into the air, and my power plows through the alien, leaving a smoldering hole in its chest.

"Wanda!"

Something clatters near my feet. I lift my hands, power glowing-

PAIN

It rips through me-locking my limbs-muscles spasming-agony burning through every nerve-

I'm screaming, but no sound comes out.

And then it's over, and I drop to the ground, limbs loose and trembling. A pair of arms catch me before my head can crack against the earth, and I'm gasping and shuddering.

"I got you, kid."

I blink up into Clint's dirt streaked face, and I have never been more relieved to see that grim smile upon his face. "Clint-" I wheeze.

"They tagged you with one of their debilitator discs. Hang on, the pain will pass."

Clint gently rests me upon the grass as he spins up to his feet, his bow snapping out from his hands. I am frozen on the ground, muscles spasming, forced to do nothing but watch.

A massive hunter looms over the archer, and Clint blocks a strike with his bow, then another, and as a blade comes streaking down, he twists to the side. Clint snaps his bow in half, and then there are two razor sharp curving knives in his hands. In a twisting maneuver too fast for me to see, he brings the Dravec to its knees, then drives both blades into its neck, just beneath the mask fastened around its face.

Kicking the body to the ground, Clint slams the two curving weapons back together, like the bow had never been split, and then he's yanking an arrow from his quiver and firing it into the distance.

I shove to my hands and knees, gasping as pins and needles stab all over my body.

"Easy," Clint calls over his shoulder as he fires more arrows. Explosions rip through the air after each one is sent flying. "Don't force it."

"No time," I say through clenched teeth. I lift my hands, and even the crimson light wavers and shudders around my shaking fingers. My eyes search the battle for Vision, my heart thudding frantically in my chest.

I find him a second later, concentrating on a ship and working alongside Thor and War Machine to bring it down.

There's a bellow of pain at my back.

Clint and I whirl, just in time to see six massive Dravec surrounding the Hulk, who's been brought to his knees. Crimson ropes have been tossed over him and stretched taut, their heat burning into his green flesh as two more hunters approach, spears raised.

I slam my hands down, releasing a blast of energy that propels me into the air, my hair coming free of its ponytail as the wind whips around me.

My feet crash into the closest Dravec, sending it buckling to the ground, and then I shove my hands out to either side of me, gripping two hunters within scarlet bursts of light. Another wave of my hands sends them flying back.

The two wielding spears charge at me, only to drop to the ground a second later, arrows embedded into their skulls.

Hulk roars, thrashing, and the three Dravec still attempting to keep him trapped in their burning net lose their footing, then their grips on the ropes. I seize one with my power by its throat, and with a curl of my fingers, its neck snaps with an audible crack. Hulk takes the other two, beating them down with his massive fists.

Growling, snarling, he whips towards me, teeth bared and eyes wild. I stumble back, heart pounding at the sight of all that rage, remembering how I had once triggered it and set it loose upon the world, remembering how Bruce Banner still refused to trust me.

My instincts scream at me to raise my hands, to call forth my power and create a shield to protect myself.

I drop my arms. Let all traces of my power fade. Let the light in my eyes die. I stand there, even as the Hulk charges at me, bellowing his fury, the heat of his breath stinging my eyes.

I don't move.

He stops. Pants. Growls. Glowers down at me.

There's recognition in his bottle green eyes, and I swear he gives me the slightest nod before whirling, letting out another roar as he charges back into the battle.

My shoulders slump, and my breath rushes out of me. Legs still shaking, feeling perilously close to passing out, I turn, catching sight of Heimdall decapitating not one, not two, but three Dravec at once with a mighty swing of his sword.

Then pain bursts at the base of my skull, and everything goes black.

* * *

 **Clint Barton**

Damn it!

I've lost Wanda.

Metallic screams rip through the air, bursts of thunderous sound. My eyes lift to the dark heavens, just in time to see one of the alien ships unleash a deadly beam of burning light.

Horror seizes my insides with icy claws as Thor vanishes within that blast of energy.

"No, no, no," I breathe.

The big Asgardian with the sword is roaring in denial, cutting down Dravec as his frantic eyes search the skies for the god of thunder.

Chest tight, I sprint across the field, leaping up onto a pile of burning debris, using it as a step ladder to charge up the side of a demolished ship. I crouch when I reach the top, my eyes searching the battlefield below for any sign of Thor.

There's none.

Goddamn it.

T'Challa is nearest me, claws out, his black suit illuminated in bursts of purple light as a swarm of Dravec pummel and wail on him. The king goes down to one knee, and I already have an arrow notched and ready to fly.

But I don't have to let it go.

An explosion of purple light sends all the aliens flying black, the Black Panther standing victorious, claws outstretched as his suit returns to its dark state.

Handy little trick.

"Anyone have eyes on Thor?" I ask tightly through our comms as I let three explosive arrows fly. "Or Wanda?"

" _Negative_ ," grits out Rhodes. " _We need some backup here, now!_ " I catch sight of him with Vision at the ship that took down the Asgardian, both blasting at its weapon to no avail. A weapon that is recharging.

Shit.

" _On it,_ " says Tony as he takes off from where he'd been hurling one Dravec into another, blasting for the weapon.

"On your tail!" I shout in warning as an armored warrior rears back his arm and snaps it forward, a red hot whip lashing through the air. I let my arrow fly, but the Dravec shifts enough that it misses, like it knew it had been coming, and with a loud crack, the whip connects with the back of Tony's suit.

Sparks fly, the impact sending him careening to the side, low enough to the ground that a second Dravec leaps upon him, knife raised.

Another arrow is already notched, but pain rips suddenly through my shoulder. I stumble forward with a cry, the arrow clattering to the ground far below. A muscled arm hooks around my neck, yanking me backwards, pressing tight enough that my air flow is immediately cut off.

Teeth clenched, lungs straining, I nearly lose my grip on my bow, but instead twist it in my hands and drive it backwards over my shoulder.

The Dravec shrieks in agony, releasing me as it stumbles away. I inhale raggedly, wheezing as I whirl, yanking my bow free from the eye socket of the alien hunter, black blood running down its ruined face. Planting my left foot back, I kick out at it, hard, and send it flying off the crashed ship to the ground below.

I spin, eyes searching for Tony, only to find Peter locked in combat with the alien who had dragged Ironman down, fiercely defending his mentor. Stark himself is bound by the fiery whip, his suit straining and sparking as he tries and fails to get free as the hunter stalks closer.

"EVERYBODY MOVE!" yells Rhodes through the comms, just as I slide down the wreckage to run to the kid's aid.

Our eyes lift to the sky, the alien craft's weapon burning bright as a sun, War Machine and Vision blasting it with all they have, finally making a dent it, but not enough.

There's no time to move, none at all. That blast radius will wipe us all out in seconds.

My muscles tense to run anyways, and then the world explodes. I throw my free arm up to shield my body on instinct at the bright burst of light, but it's coming from the wrong direction. A massive energy beam barrels into the ship from its far side, blasting a hole straight through it.

I look up in shock at the alien ship that had just destroyed one of its own. War Machine and Vision soar out of the way as the destroyed craft goes down in a flurry of smoke and smoldering pieces.

"What the hell?"

My eyes move to the traitor ship, to the front of it, where the metal panels lift and separate to reveal the thick glass windshield beneath. I squint, not sure if I believe what I am seeing.

But then T'Challa mutters, " _Bonisa_." And his little sister waves cheekily down at us from the cockpit of the alien craft.

"Well, I'll be damned," I say as the bay doors open, and three figures drop to the ground.

* * *

 **A/N: GUYS DON'T BE MAD XD**

 **Yeah, this is a two parter. I'm sorry guys, I really wanted to keep it a single chapter, but where I was writing it was nearly 16,000 words of non stop action and it was getting too heavy. I figured you guys could use a breather in between all the action, and since I'm nearly done with the second part, I will post that soon! Maybe tomorrow or the day after. :)**

 **AH I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S HERE! The big finale! What a ride this has been! I hope you guys are enjoying all the action! It's all been leading up to this. And the next chapter is going to be bananas too.**

 **SO interesting to hear from where you guys are from! A lot more out of country readers than I thought! Very cool! Thank you for all who participated in my random poll. :) Your support truly means the world to me.**

 **GOOD NEWS! I went to the doctor yesterday for an upper nerve test. After being shocked and stabbed with needles all over my arms and neck, OUCH (No joke, I had no idea what to expect and after being shocked, the doctor goes, "Ok, needle time!" in an entirely too cheerful voice. I was like, "Come again?" :O), I don't have carpal tunnel! It's tendinitis, which is curable with rest and taking care of myself! Yay!**

 **Special thanks to PippinStrange, as always, for being a phenomenal beta. Our late night writing sessions are a blast, and your fangirling and editing are out of this world! I can't wait to read your up and coming fic! You guys, it's going to be so gooooooood.**

 **Any artists out there participating in Inktober this year? PippinStrange and I are, and we are posting to our instagrams! Today's prompt had me drawing Venom, so if anyone would like to check it out and follow me, my instagram name is mscrystalbeard**

* * *

sparklydog9: Omg, I know. I almost did it too. Almost. :O then I decided to give Peter a break, for now. ;)

KiernanCo: Ahhh I'm so glad it makes your day! I hope part one lived up to your expectations! Much more to come! I've been to Florida a couple times! Definitely for Disney World and Universal Studios. ;)

Puppens101: Sorry about your wrist! And hopefully this update finds you at a good time and not during anything important! lol! XD Never been to New Jersey! that's cool!

The Striking Storms: Ah thanks so much! Don't worry, more stories are already in the works ;)

screechyfangirl: Yasssss!

StarStepper: I almost did! Peter made it out from being branded by the skin of his teeth! Lucky kid! Or….is he? :D THANK YOU SO MUCH! Hopefully I didn't leave you hanging for too long

monkeybaby: Hello from California! thank you!

Lailuh: thank you so much! WOW! It makes my heart so happy knowing I can make your day better

Bishi-bishi: HELLO! :D I LOVE hearing from new readers! Gosh, bless you for binging! THANK YOU SO MUCH! REALLY! Means the world to me! I am on Ao3, but I don't post consistently there because it's a lot more difficult to manage and I'm so busy writing and posting new content here. Love from California! So cool you are from the Phillipines!

cargumentluv: LOL! Ahhh thank you so much! :D :D :D Hello from California!

Heroes21: Wow, Australia! That's cool! Don't worry, one more chapter of battle still to go!

Vivienne: French and from Romania, dang! Very cool! Thank you for your reviews!

silver-roses12: British Columbia? So awesome! Don't you worry! Two more stories for this series are already in the works, so it won't be too long before I am posting again once this story is done.

RedHood001: WOW WHAT A REVIEW! The length and detail of that one floored me! Thank you for taking the time to do that! I loved hearing all your thoughts on the chapter, about Korg and Hulk, and Cling and all the others! Loki and Wanda (and Vision) definitely have some unresolved stuff to take care of. And as for Dr. Strange….he may be making an appearance before this series is finished. ;) Gosh, thank you so much for all your kind words! It just wows me that you guys love my stories so much, and that my chapters are bookmarked on your computer to reread! Ahhhh I love it so much! Eee! And dang, all the way from Indonesia? That's amazing! The final fic in this series will be HUGELY epic, don't you worry ;)

DarylDixon'sLover: we shall see!

NW NightwalkerHp: A Korean in Australia! Very cool! So glad you're reading!

BeccaRave: Thank you! And Virginia is on my bucket list! I'd love to travel there someday

Kairianna864: Next chapter will be intense also! And yes, plenty more content to come!

LoonyLovegood1981: Thank you! And yes, from Germany! So cool! I won't say too much since I don't want to spoil it, but I think you will enjoy the next chapter!

Cakewhiz: Ahhh THANK YOU! *heart eyes* Gosh, that would be THE coolest thing ever!

KHARAKI TAKAN: Thank you! lol!

MewWinx96: Hi! Glad you're enjoying! New England, awesome! :)

betsythefox: Hi there! From Demark, wow! Hope you liked it!

Ghost staffy: I love Korg too! and the references ahhhh! so fun to write! :D Your hashtag was amazing also XD

ImmortalDragon123456: Will definitely be some fluff to come after all the epicosity is through!

GinaBoo: I know! I can't believe we are here either! I was so happy to bring those four together too! ALlll the reunions! Finally! More to come on that front as well!

AppleSpongeCake: RIGHT? Craziness! As to your request for a Where They Go cameo. It's written. It's epic. But it's not for this fic. ;) You'll have to wait for Sound of Silence for that one.

Ann: Aw thank you so much! That is seriously so so so kind and generous of you, and I really appreciate your nice thoughts and prayers! I am so grateful for PippinStrange and her support and our relationship. These fics wouldn't exist otherwise! Thank you for your review! Much love!

NCC-1701-Z: That would be a cute one-shot! I really enjoyed splitting off the characters in this one and seeing how they'd interact! I love that you made the connection between Bruce and Bucky! They and Peter were SO fun to write together

Thebookworm33: Ahhhhh a fellow Californian! Thanks for reviewing both chapters! That was amazing! I missed writing, and I missed hearing from all of you! And oh my word you are so so so kind! wow! THANK YOU SO MUCH! Your compliments and love seriously made my day, and I am so thankful for you and all my readers who take a moment and express such kind thoughts to me! WOW! Dude, a t-shirt would be INSANE! XD You're the best, seriously

Sara B: I would truly love to visit the UK! I adore big bro Bucky too! Such a fun dynamic to write! PLENTY of that coming up too! ANd YES to the scrawny little idiots! Lol! XD That scene in Age of Ultron with Clint and Pietro slayed me. I laughed so hard, I knew I had to pay tribute to that moment somehow. I hope some of your questions were answered in this chapter, and that the rest will soon be answered in the chapters to come! Thank you so much for your review!

gammathetaalpha: Thank you very much! More Hulk to come!

Writer-at-Heart0: Thanks!

icotnoir: Yassss! Thank you so much! He's a blast to write.

Kirby Lane: Ahhh thank you! I am such a sucker for the Avengers being protective of Peter. Thank you SO much for your remarks on the transition scene with the rescuers coming in! I'm really glad you enjoyed it! I hope you liked this chapter too!

WeirdWarrior: Hi! So yeah, the focus is mostly on Peter but does venture off quite a bit to the other characters. There is definitely some Bruce/Natasha moments coming up soon! Hope you'll enjoy!

PippinStrange: GUUUURL YOU'RE THE BEST! LOVE YOU!

EleanorGardner: Canada! So neat! Sometimes I wish I was Canadian instead of American. lol. So glad you're enjoying!

Leiah Cloud: I love big bro Bucky too! And Clint! Yeah, poor guy has seen some stuff, but at least he has his coping mechanisms. Enjoy that wine, gurl! I'll have a new chapter soon, I promise! And Finland! Yes! Amazing! Can't believe it's already snowing!

AllShallFade777: DUDE! Thank you for all your reviews on my fics the past few days! They were such a delight!

Linkstar90: England! Wow! and thank you so much!

* * *

 **YOU GUYS DON'T WORRY! After this, there will be a few chapters of recovery and wind down and fluff, and a killer end credits scene. And two more fics to follow! This isn't the end!**

 **COMING SOON:**

 **Chapter Seventeen: Riders in the Sky PART TWO**

 **The remaining Avengers come in to play as the battle escalates into one big showdown! Will all the Avengers survive? Does Korg return? What happened to Wanda? Will the Dravec be victorious? Find out who makes it and who doesn't in part two of the climactic final battle!**


	17. Riders in the Sky: Part Two

**CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Riders in the Sky Part Two**

* * *

 **...**

 **...**

 **Natasha Romanov**

We hit the ground running, drawing the weapons from our holsters.

Okoye is in the lead, spinning the staff in her hands. The fury on her face, the strength in her limbs as she sprints towards the battle makes her look like a warrior goddess, more than human. Eyes narrowed, lip curled, she is a lioness charging her prey.

And as we near them, she roars.

"WAKANDA FOREVER!"

With one twist of her staff, two Dravec warriors go down. She kicks off their corpses to leap into the air, spinning into a kick that knocks one back just before she drives her spear through its chest. The Wakandan warrior lands beside its body in a crouch, baring her teeth, and the two hunters closest to her back away.

"Holy shit," pants Scott beside me as we run to catch up.

The General has a score to settle with this bloodthirsty alien race, a strong need to avenge her fallen people, her family that was taken and hunted and slaughtered. Okoye lunges, a flurry of rage and revenge and death as she unleashes herself upon the alien force with a savage snarl.

Five steps later, I am right beside her. Vibranium batons raised, I slide to my knees striking low as she strikes high, and in a splattering of black blood, a Dravec goes down. Okoye goes to one knee, and riding my momentum, I surge upwards, kicking off her thigh to launch myself into the air. Tucking my body in tight, I whirl just before I hook a leg over the shoulder of an approaching alien, heaving myself up and flicking a switch on my batons that unleashes a vibranium blade at each end. Blades that go straight into its skull.

The body collapses forward, and I roll with it, surging to my feet beside Okoye. We exchange a look, then set our sights onto a large, heavily armored warrior readying its bright red, burning whip.

It arches its arm back, then stumbles to the side suddenly, its head jerking left, then right. Its arm twists unnaturally, and then the whip is being wrapped around its neck. Flailing, wheezing, it goes down, and then Scott is materializing above the alien, slamming his boot into its skull.

He grins up at us through his helmet. "Ladies."

" _Bout time you got here,_ " Clint's voice is tight through the comms. My focus sharpens. He's injured, I can tell through those five words. Not incapacitated, but enough to cause a strain, enough to make him in danger of being a target to be picked off.

"Where are you?" I demand as Scott disappears again, as Okoye and I go back to back as a swarm of hunters charge us.

" _Wanda is missing. Steve's hurt bad, but Barnes has his back,"_ Clint ignores my question to start filling me in. " _We got Asgardian players on the field, including our old friend, Snape."_

I dodge the swing of a knife, jabbing my bladed baton into an alien chest, the vibranium cutting easily through its armor. My eyes narrow across the green hills to where I can see a dark haired Asgardian, wielding an alien plasma rifle.

Loki shoots down an oncoming Dravec with a severe expression on his face, off-played by the slight smile on one corner of his mouth.

"He's on our side now?"

I crouch down as Okoye rolls across my back, and we face our new opponents.

" _Enemy of my enemy,_ " says Clint. " _Think the others would notice if the smoke clears and there's an arrow in his chest?"_

"Not if you switch it out for one of those spears," I clench my teeth as I cross my batons in front of me in an X, catching a wicked, black wrist blade in between. Holding it tight, I twist my body into a spin, wrenching at the Dravec's arm. It twists and cracks with a horrific sound, and then I am slamming the blunt end of a baton into its forehead. "Just don't let Thor see you."

" _Thor's down. Or missing._ "

My gut twists. "Bruce? The kid?"

Clint doesn't answer. Shit.

" _Le yentsapho yam, nina babulali,_ " Okoye hisses savagely as she crosses spears with a massive warrior, the poles thwacking together and spinning in the air too fast to follow. She catches it by its ankle, sweeps its legs out from under it, and drives her spear into its chest.

" _They're holding their own. Everyone is,_ " Clint finally answers.

Above us, Shuri takes on the remaining two ships, performing aerial maneuvers that are no doubt giving her brother a heart attack as she fires upon them. Her piloting skill is beyond impressive, another talent in the princess's arsenal.

I straighten, noting only a handful of stragglers in this section of the battlefield. "Where do you need me?"

" _Northwest of your position. Cap's cornered_."

I charge over a pile of smoldering debris, leaping into the air, those two words ringing in my ears and coiling around my stomach.

It will be a miracle if we all make it out of this alive.

* * *

 **Peter Parker**

Everything is happening too fast for my overstimulated mind to keep up with. My body moves almost on autopilot, ducking, dodging, punching, swinging, firing webs- It all kind of turns into this mushed up mass of armored aliens and weapons and an endless barrage of noise that makes my ears ring.

No end in sight, although whoever is manning the alien craft is flying like freaking Poe Dameron through the sky, taking on the last remaining Dravec ship as the other goes crashing to the ground in another deafening explosion.

Mr. Stark told me to use the buddy system, and I'm _trying_ , but it's so hard trying to keep track of who I'm fighting with before we get separated by Dravec and I end up stumbling upon a new ally.

It's a blur. It's chaos and noise and violence.

"Shuri!" Black Panther shouts.

My head whips to follow his gaze (I hadn't even known I was fighting close to him) to see that the last alien ship is closely tailing our allied one, and two Dravec warriors have somehow managed to leap aboard, ruthlessly blasting into it as the pilot spins and soars, trying to knock them off. Black Panther charges forward, but two highly skilled hunters quickly detain him, and a quick look around me shows that anyone who could help is too occupied to do so.

Everyone, except me.

"Hey, big guy!" I yell as I race towards the Hulk, who hurtles debris at the alien ship still tailing our ally, knocking it out of its pursuit and into the trees where it explodes in a fiery rush. "Can I get a lift?"

The words are out before I can question myself, before I can freak out or regret my decision. A grin stretches across the behemoth's face as he reaches out a hand. Massive fingers encircle my waist, and in a dizzying move far faster and wilder and more terrifying than any roller coaster or thrill ride I have ever been on, Hulk launches me into the air.

Stomach tumbling, eyes streaming, I yell out as I fly, the wind slapping at my face as my arms pinwheel, my body flying up, up, up-

WHAM!

The breath is knocked clean out of me as my body slams into the alien craft. I cling to the slick metal as the turbulent wind currents slide me along the panel until my scrabbling fingers find purchase in a crack. My legs fly wildly back behind me, my body turning into some ridiculously bright red and blue flag as I hang on for dear life.

"No big deal," I breathe, squinting in the wind and smoke that burns my throat and eyes. "Nothing you haven't done before. This'll be cake."

Two Dravec crouch atop the craft, slamming their spears into the ship's hull, their boots somehow magnetized to the surface. Sparks fly, smoke streams from the damaged engines that have begun to shriek with a grating pitch.

The girl inside-Shuri-is barely visible in the cracked glass that the hunters are trying to pierce, her teeth clenched and her grip tight on the ship's steering levers.

Muscles burning in sharp protest, I drag myself along the damaged ship as it dips and shudders, despite Shuri's attempt to keep it level in the air. Stomach heaving with every drop, I tighten my left hand's grip as I raise my right, aiming carefully, my fingers pressing against the trigger on my palm.

The web fires, releasing into the air towards one of the hunters, only to go sharply right and come flying back in the opposite direction, sputtering out with an anticlimactic thwip.

Oh. Wind. Duh.

Alrighty, the hard way then. I shove to my feet, staying low, arms braced against the wind battering into me as my feet stick to the top of the alien ship, sliding back ever so slightly. Racing forward, the air roaring in my ears, I leap at the last second and seize the spear one of the hunters had just embedded in the crack in between the metal panel and glass windshield to pry it apart.

Tightening my grip, I sweep out my leg, hard, knocking the hunter onto its back. The Dravec goes flying back, its body rolling and slamming onto the ship as it tries to find purchase.

"Woah!"

A metal tipped spear is stabbing for my face, and I'm forced to swing around the pole stuck in the ship, using the momentum to kick the alien in its armored chest. It stumbles back, releasing its spear that goes flying into the air, disappearing in seconds, but the alien's metal boots remain firmly attached to the ship.

Its eyes glint with victory, and my spider-sense blares in alarm as I look over my shoulder.

To the blinking red disk on the thick, cracked, glass windshield.

"Shit!"

I kick out at it, but too late. The disk goes flying into the air, but the explosion is too close, heat searing my tucked body and a thunderous sound clapping against my eardrums. Glass shatters, and I hear a cry, the smoke from the battered alien ship growing thicker, darker.

When I look up again, the alien hunter has a rifle aimed straight at me.

There's a bright blast, a sharp burst of sound, and then the Dravec goes flying off the ship.

I look back to see Shuri standing, clinging to her seat with one hand, a silver weapon shaped like a roaring panther encasing her other hand, still glowing with a faint light. She shoots me a grin.

The alien ship dips sharply, careening straight towards the ground in a billow of sparks and smoke.

"COME ON!" I shout as I reach out for her.

Teeth clenched, eyes wide, she reaches back, clasping my wrist with the hand that had been holding her steady. I yank, hurling her onto my back, and she goes without hesitation, wrapping her legs around my waist and arms around my neck.

Using my grip on the spear, still embedded into the ship, I shove off of it and begin sprinting up the back of the ship, fighting against the wind, the gravity, all the forces barrelling into us with deadly intent. But then the ship goes completely vertical, and I'm forced to scramble up in the fastest crawl I've ever managed.

I think I'm yelling, yelling like my muscles want to as I force every bit of my remaining strength into propelling us up, up, and then-then we are leaping into the air, my feet kicking hard off the shard of metal dangling off of the back of the craft.

Leaping-and then falling.

Shuri's grip on me doesn't falter, just tightens as we plummet alongside the destroyed ship, and I raise my arm, my fingers pressing down, firing a web blindly into the air as I pray, please, please-

It must have latched onto something, because suddenly the line goes taut, my arm straining with our combined weight as our bodies change direction, swinging forward instead of down-

SLAM!

We hit the ground hard, and despite my best attempts to hit first and take the brunt of it, to hang on to the girl at my back, she is ripped away from me as we tumble and roll across the grassy hill.

Pain flares everywhere as I roll to a halt, but I half push up from the ground, my wide eyes frantically searching for her.

Shuri is curled up on her side away from me, fifteen feet from where I landed. I shove up and race towards her, heart hammering at the sight of her shaking shoulders. Oh god, oh god-

I fall to my knees beside her, carefully turning her over.

Then blink. And gape.

The girl is laughing. Not just chuckling or giggling like the girls at school normally do when they think something is funny or when they are flirting with the football players. She's clutching her stomach and laughing so hard, tears are streaming down her soot stained face.

"That…" she heaves, sitting up and wiping at her cheeks with an ear splitting grin. "Was _amazing_!"

This girl is absolutely insane. I don't know whether I should laugh with her or if I should be terrified of her. As she gets to her feet, adjusting her panther shaped weapon encasing her arm, Shuri's grin turns wicked, and I know immediately that I should definitely, definitely be scared.

"Now come on," she bares her teeth, eyes bright. "Let's go kill some aliens."

Without waiting for me, she takes off into the fray, her silver panther weapon raised as she races towards the Black Panther.

Then, as I blink, I see Scott. Giant Scott. Rising up over the battlefield like a tree ent in Isengard. The Dravec before him stagger back, clearly caught off guard by the giant in their midst, and then his foot comes crashing down. They dive, but Scott's ready for them, backhanding the slowest two and sending them flying into the jungle.

I wince in sympathy as I recall just exactly what that feels like.

Spotting Mr. Stark fighting back to back with Colonel Rhodes, I shove to my feet, shaky and exhausted, but determined to help.

WHAM!

I hit the ground hard, the grass whipping my face as I roll the rest of the way down the hill. Pain bursts through my ribs as the large, twisting roots of a tree stops my descent. Spitting out blades of grass and specks of dirt, I groan and push up on my forearms, my head lifting to look for my attacker.

The world tilts beneath me, my fingers automatically digging into the earth to ground myself.

A single Dravec stalks down the hill.

Just one. I can take just one. No problem.

My dizziness begins to fade, and as it does my eyes focus on the hunter.

Oh _shit_.

There's no mask on its face. Instead, a hideous, scalding burn twists up its cheek, blistered and raw and horrible. Its red eyes are the color of blood, and they glare down at me with murderous rage.

I swallow, shoving to my feet and taking a couple steps back as it storms towards me. I'm at the treeline, at the base of a hill, the rest of the battle, the rest of my allies beyond it, out of sight, though I can still hear the shouts and explosions and blasts of gunfire.

The Dravec pulls a coiled whip from its belt, gripping the handle tight as the rest of it unfurls to the ground, sliding along the grass like a whispering serpent.

Not good.

"Hey-about that whole accidental branding thing? I was sort of hoping we could put that behind us," I say, backing up, hands raised. "You know, seeing as you were going to do it to me first?"

The Dravec's stride doesn't falter.

"No? Alright then, pal, you asked for it," I say with much more bravado than I feel.

Ok, first things first, get that whip away from it.

Planting my feet, I throw out my arm, pressing my fingers to my palm to fire a web at the whip's handle.

Click.

My eyes widen, and I instinctually press it again.

Click. Click.

No, no, no, no, no-I glance down at the meter along my webshooter, to the small, flashing red number in the corner.

0%

SHIT.

My spider-senses scream in alarm, and I throw myself to the side as a huge CRACK renders through the air. Crouching on the ground, I look up with wide eyes at the whip in the Dravec's hand, glowing fire-brand red.

The hunter snarls at me, horrifically thick fangs bared.

It rears back its arm and-

CRACK!

I roll, feeling the heat from the whip as it strikes too close to me on the ground, scalding the grass and turning it it scorched black. Shoving to my feet, I charge up the hill.

CRACK!

Red streaks in front of me, and I'm forced to change course, kicking off from the incline to leap the rest of the way down the hill, arms thrown back to speed my descent.

I hit the hunter feet first, the impact sending it stumbling back a few steps as I hit the ground, bounce up, and deliver a spinning kick to its jaw. The Dravec's back slams against the tree, and it hisses.

I lunge for the whip in its hand, my fingers prying, but I have to leap back as the hunter unleashes the wrist blade in its free hand and swipes it at me.

Our fight quickly turns into a game of keep away, but its moves are deadly fast, fueled by a need for bloodthirsty revenge. And I think maybe injured pride, that a small thing like me was able to escape its clutches and leave it with a scar as a permanent reminder. The attacks are relentless; knives slashing, whips cracking, fists slamming-

And I'm slowing down, I realize, as sweat trickles down my face and burns my eyes. My body has been pushed far, far past its limit. I'm exhausted and weak and injured, and pretty much the only thing I have going for me at the moment is my desperation to live.

I flip backwards, my spine arching to avoid another deadly crack of the whip, feeling like I'm in the Matrix or on the wrong side of some really messed up Indiana Jones movie, and then I'm scrabbling for the trees, climbing up in a desperate attempt to get some space, to get a moment to breathe.

One branch, then another, higher and higher, and I think I'm going to make it, I think I'm out of range and-

CRACK!

Pain lances across my back, so sharp and hot my vision goes white and my breath halts mid inhale. My hands lose their grip on the bark of the tree, and then I register that I'm falling.

WHAM.

I hit the ground, wheezing as the rest of my air is snatched away.

Crap-crap-crap-

I lie there, gaping uselessly, my body stunned even as my back throbs and burns with searing pain. GET UP-GET UP-!

The Dravec looms above me, eyes raging. It tosses the whip aside with disdain, than lunges to grip the front of my suit in its clawed hand. In a whoosh of movement, I'm in the air, inches from the hunter's face, my hands scrabbling at its ironclad grip.

It slams my back against the closest tree so hard I go limp, completely dazed.

Not dazed enough though, to realize I am in deep shit. Though I'm loathe to embarrass myself while literally every _single_ Avenger is fighting around me, though I want desperately to prove myself, I realize that that whole dignity and pride thing? Yeah, it's going to have to go. Or I'm toast.

"HELP!" I shout. "SEND HELP! ALL THE HELP!"

Its free hand clamps over my jaw, claws piercing into the skin of my cheek and my chin. It hisses at me, those teeth perilously close to my throat, and I realize that if it unsheathes the blade in its wrist, it will go straight through my neck.

Breathing heavily through my nose, I grab at the hand on my face, trying to pry its arm back and away from me.

The Dravec's grip only tightens, bruising my jaw, because now that is the only hand holding me up, and its other is drawn back, blade extended, ready to slash down across my face.

I kick and I push and I yell beneath its hand-

The Dravec shrieks, spit flying onto my face as its back arches, and it releases its hold on me. I fall hard onto my ass, my back against the trunk of the tree as I look up. Bucky stands behind the alien, his dirty face filled with cold fury. His hands grip a long spear, the end of which is embedded into the Dravec's lower back.

"You bellowed?" Bucky raises a brow as he gives the spear a sharp twist, and the hunter shrieks in agony.

"What? No, I don't think so," I say, shoving to my feet. "Must have been someone else yelling for help."

"Sure."

The Dravec wrenches forward, sliding off the end of the spear with a horrific squelching sound that turns its stomach. It whirls faster than it should, snatching for the weapon, but Bucky is faster, stepping back and spinning it out of reach before stabbing for the hunter again.

Though injured, the Dravec rolls, and I see what it's going for. I lunge, hitting the ground, my fingers closing over the handle of the whip just as the hunter does.

I'm not fast enough.

WHAM

Its knuckles connect with my temple in a vicious backhand that has me seeing spots as I go flying back. My head cracks against something hard.

Black.

I blink away gray fuzzy dots with a groan, clutching my throbbing face, wincing at the stabs of pain ricocheting around in my skull. Squinting, the world tilting precariously beneath me, I sit up.

My eyes try and fail to focus on the dark shape some distance away, and with every blink of my lids, it becomes clearer. And my blood goes cold.

Bucky's on all fours, blood running down his temple as he tries to stand. The Dravec hunter looms behind him, the whip glowing red hot in its hand. Its arm rears back, and a surge of panic makes me dizzier, make it impossible to get to my feet in time.

CRACK!

The whip connects with Bucky's metal arm and wraps around it just below his shoulder. Heat waves rise up from the scorched steel, the smell burning my nose, and then the alien gives a mighty wrench. There's a horrible screeching sound, metal plates splitting, wires ripping, sparks flying.

I throw myself to my feet, swaying so bad, my back hits the trunk of the tree. Dimly I register that I probably have a concussion, but it doesn't matter. I have to get to Bucky.

He cries out. The metal arm completely disconnects from his body.

The Dravec lets out a hissing laugh.

I'm charging forward with a yell, the world darkening around the edges of my vision as my head aches with protest. But then my shoulder is connecting with the Dravec's middle, and we both go crashing to the ground.

I sit up, winding back my arm and punching over and over, anything and everything within reach, my moves wild, desperate.

Then, the next thing I know, I'm on the ground, the Dravec's fangs too close to mine, its breath hot on my cheek. Something cinches around my throat with a sharp yank before I can take another breath, then burns like fire.

My eyes bulge, my teeth clenching as I buck beneath the alien hunter, as I scrabble for the scalding whip wrapped around my neck.

I only have seconds before I black out, seconds before my burning lungs give out, and the thought that crosses my mind is that this is probably karma for what I did to Clint last Christmas Eve.

The weight goes flying off of me, the Dravec's grip on the whip loosening enough for me to inhale sharply, raggedly before I start coughing in hoarse gulps. My fingers find purchase as I yank the whip off of me, breathing hard.

A yell reaches my ears, and I blearily look up.

No freaking way.

Korg, wielding two long alien daggers, bears down upon the alien hunter with ferocious strength. I watch, wheezing as they collide in a flurry of moves, Korg whirling and stabbing and punching with all his might.

My vision blurs again, refocusing just in time to see the Dravec slam the knife into Korg's chest. Insides seizing with horror, my lips part to scream a denial, but Korg just looks down, then up again, and slams his rocky forehead into the Dravec's.

The hunter goes down to its knees, lilting side to side ever so slightly.

"Look at this," Korg shakes his head in disbelief as he rips the dagger from his chest, and bits of rock crumble from the jagged hole. "Aw, you've got to be joking. That's just perfect. I've got a hole in my chest now, do you see this? Do you know how impractical this is?"

The Dravec shoves up, roaring-

BLAM!

-and collapses to the ground with a hole of its own where its heart should be. I turn to see Bucky, propped up against a tree, a smoking plasma rifle in his single hand.

"Nice shot," commends Korg. "Very nicely done. Would have been a bit more convenient if you had shot it before I was stabbed, but generally speaking, things worked out pretty well, didn't they?"

Bucky looks down at the smoldering metal stub where the rest of his arm should be, then over at me where I rub my throat, squinting to make sure there's only one of him sitting there, then up at Korg and the hole in his chest.

"Sure," he says. Then turns to me. "Friend of yours?"

"That's Korg," I rasp, sounding like an eighty six year old smoker.

"And this is New Miek," Korg hoists me to my feet a little too fast, and I have to stifle a groan. "Oh, sorry. You two have already met, haven't you? That makes this a little awkward. What's your name? Aw look at that, you're missing an arm. Looks unpleasant. Is it unpleasant, or can you not feel it since it was machine and you're not?"

Bucky shoots me an incredulous look as I wobble over to him and help him to his feet, both of us swaying rather precariously. That's when I notice the blood starting to seep through his bandages.

Oh god. His wound reopened. It never had time to heal all the way.

Bucky notices my panicked stare and murmurs. "It's fine."

"Like hell it is!" My voice comes out too loud as it bounces around in my skull, and I wince.

"Peter. It looks worse than it is. We need to get to the others," Bucky says firmly. "Regroup."

"Yeah. Yeah, ok."

I don't believe him. But I don't know how much longer I can keep my mind focused and my eyes open, and at least he has a plan. And we have Korg.

The three of us must be quite a sight walking out from the jungle onto the battlefield; an alien made of rocks with a crevice in his chest, Bucky, one armed and bleeding, and me traipsing behind them like a drunk leaving a bar.

And I think I might be hallucinating as I survey the wreck of the battlefield, because I think…I think the fight might actually be over.

What was once green sprawling hills framed by lush jungle is now a disaster of scrap metal, scorched ground, and decimated alien corpses. Flames burn from the wreckage, swathing the entire space in acrid smoke that mixes with the scent of blood. It makes me feel even woozier, makes my stomach turn.

Maybe passing out wouldn't be such a bad idea.

I flinch as light catches on red and gold metal, and suddenly Mr. Stark is in front of me, face plate lifting, his hands steadying me as they grip my shoulders. His eyes are wide and worried. All four of them.

"Are you okay?" he demands.

"Fine," I say automatically, but it comes out so hoarse the word is nearly unrecognizable. We both frown. "I...can we go home now?"

Mr. Stark lets out a huff, dragging me forward as he puts an arm around me to keep me stable as we walk. But before we set off, he glances at Bucky, then Korg, then back to Bucky.

"What did you do to my arm?" Mr. Stark asks.

Bucky raises a brow. " _Your_ arm?"

"Yes. I put a lot of time and innovation into that thing."

"Dravec tore it off like it was nothing, so it couldn't have been that great. Should've gone with Oscorp."

"That's it, you're getting left behind."

* * *

 **Natasha Romanov**

I approach cautiously, one slow foot in front of the other. No sudden movements. No loud noises.

Hulk breathes heavily through clenched teeth, his hands curled into fists, and his feet kicking at a Dravec corpse the way an irritated child kicks at rocks. Sweat glistens from his green skin, several cuts and bruises marring his upper body, his face.

"Hey, big guy," I say softly.

He freezes, his head whipping towards me, a flash of anger crossing his eyes before...uncertainty. Hurt.

Brows furrowing, I tilt my head to the side and ease closer. "What's wrong?"

Hulk's jaw tightens, the massive tendons on his neck sticking straight out as he looks away from me and kicks the hunter's body a few feet away. "No lullaby," he growls.

This is new.

"Okay," I say, and slowly settle myself down on a chunk of nearby debris, crisscrossing my legs and settling my hands into my lap. Relaxed. Open. Unthreatening.

He glares at me suspiciously. "Okay?"

I nod. "No lullaby."

Hulk waits a moment, and when I don't move or say anything, he nods sharply, satisfied. Something loosens in his shoulders, his hands, and he meanders closer to me.

"I missed you," I tell him.

"You missed Banner," growls Hulk.

Then I understand. The uncertainty, the refusal to be lulled back to Bruce, the hurt in his eyes. "Him too," I concede. "But I missed you."

"You miss Hulk?" his deep voice raises in surprise.

"Don't you remember what happened before you went far away?"

Hulk shifts uncomfortably, then plops down beside me on the large metal panel from the fallen Dravec ship. The whole thing bows under his weight, and my hands shoot out to grip the edge so I don't slide straight into him.

"Smashed Ultron. You and Banner wanted to run. Wanted to make Hulk disappear," he accuses, the growl in his voice more upset than angry.

My eyes soften. "We did want to run. But remember what I did next?"

Hulk frowns. "No."

"I shoved Banner down a pit," I remind him drily. "I wanted you."

He eyes me sideways. "Just to fight. Always to fight."

"Our friends needed help. They needed you."

"Banner's friends. Not Hulk's."

I slowly reach up, my hand small against his large cheek as I turn his face towards mine. "Hulk's friends," I say firmly. "The world needed you. I needed you. I don't want you to go away again. Life was a lot more boring without the Hulk."

Hulk's vibrantly green eyes are filled with so much hope it makes my heart twist. "Hulk miss you too."

Slowly, his skin begins to warm, the green shifting to a more human hue as his body shrinks down, shuddering slightly. I keep my hand on his face, my eyes locked on his even as they darken to brown.

Seconds later, Bruce Banner is gasping and shaking, his hand reaching up to rest on top of mine, and an awe filled smile stretches across his face.

"How'd you do that?" he asks. "That was the easiest change I've ever had."

"Big guy just needed some reassurance."

Bruce lets out a breathy laugh of disbelief. "God, I'm so happy to see you."

Our hands fall from his face, but he keeps mine wrapped firmly in his. I raise an eyebrow. "I heard you told Thor the same thing."

"Yeah, well...that-that was different. You-I really missed you."

"So I've been told," I smile. "How 'bout we get you some pants?"

"Yes, please."

* * *

 **Clint Barton**

I walk among the rubble, bow still raised, my eyes sharply surveying the field. Smoke wafts up from different piles of burning debris. It blows in and out from in front of my eyes like a curtain billowing in the wind, forcing me to focus that much harder when it clears.

The quiet is deafening. It always is after a big fight like this one. Makes the little sounds that much louder; the crackling of flames, the groaning of metal as it settles into the ground, the voices of my teammates as they try to regroup and take stock of injuries and casualties.

This is when the tension finally gets to me. Not rushing in to the fight, not mid-battle when everything is chaos and death and survival.

It's the aftermath. The wondering who made it. Then looking for them.

My heart beats frantically as my body moves purposefully through the wreckage, aiming my bow down at the corpses when the curling smoke makes it look like they are moving. Battle's over, but danger's not. Any of these bastards wounded and playing dead could surge up at any moment while we are off guard.

" _Barnes and the kid are accounted for,_ " Stark says over comms. " _And a plus one. We got some injuries, but nothing urgent."_

I let out a breath I'm glad they can't hear.

My shoulder aches fiercely, protesting my continued hold on my weapon. Something's torn, but it's nothing that can't be fixed later.

The ground dips into a deep, muddy crater. I crouch at its edge just as the smoke clears and catch sight of a body at its center, filthy and sprawled and-

I slide down, holstering my bow and putting a finger to my earpiece. "I got Thor. He's down."

Without listening to the response, I rush to the Asgardian's side, kneeling next to him and reaching for his neck.

A hand seizes my wrist, hard enough my bones creak. "Hey! Easy, EASY!" I say quickly. "You're gonna put me out of a job."

Thor looks up at me, brows furrowed, lips parted as he pants. "Barton?"

"It's me, buddy. Do you mind?"

"Oh. Sorry."

He releases his grip on me and sits up with a groan, covered in mud and scorch marks. "The Dravec?"

"Dead. Battle's over, thunderhead," I help him to his feet, steadying him as he sways a little.

"We were victorious?"

"Looks that way. Just trying to find everybody."

Thor's blue eyes sharpen. "Who's still missing?"

"Wanda."

The word tightens my throat, but I clear it and tell the others that Thor's ok, asking for a status update on the missing woman. There's none.

"We will find her, my friend," Thor says reassuringly, gripping my shoulder.

I know we will. I'm just scared of what we'll find. The longer it takes to find someone after something like this, the less likely it is they…

No. Not finishing that thought.

"Sure we will," I say lightly. "Now that we got your sharp eyes on the job."

"Indeed."

Fifteen minutes later, there's no sign of her, and those of us left regroup on the tallest hillside. All of us except Vision, who's disappeared into the jungle on his own despite insistence that he take someone with him to search. And the Wakandans, who are gathered grim faced a good distance away. I can't make out what they are saying from here, but though all three are alive and kicking, it looks like they are holding some kind of funeral.

Banner's back to himself, wearing the pants and button up shirt Nat had added to her pack before we left Earth. "Just in case," she had said.

"Where's Loki?" asks Thor, frowning.

Silence. We all exchange tense looks, suddenly aware of the missing Asgardian, our last encounter with him fresh in our minds. My fists clench. If that greasy haired bastard has done anything to Wanda-

"I know what you're thinking," Thor starts, sensing the direction our thoughts are going. "But Loki wouldn't-"

"Oh, you mean the guy who tried to enslave the earth and slaughter thousands wouldn't kidnap one of the most powerful players on the team?" demands Tony. "You're right. Completely out of character."

Thor's eyes narrow.

The other Asgardian with the golden eyes hesitantly admits, "He...did seem intrigued by her. I've seen that look on his face before."

Thor cuts him a look, but I say, "When?"

"When he discovered the Tesseract."

Bruce curses, and the need for violence burns in my blood.

"Hang on!" Thor protests. "My brother is a lot of things, but he isn't stupid. He knows you're all looking for an excuse to slaughter him, and he also knows you're his only way off this planet. He's-"

"He's right there," Natasha says, her head jerking towards the treeline.

We whirl, and sure enough, there he is, and-something clenches and releases inside me. There's Wanda, looking battered and near unconsciousness, but limping on, one arm slung over Loki's shoulder as he supports most of her weight.

Before any of us can move forward, Vision appears, shooting up from the ground in front of them like some kind of primary colored ghost. The relief on Wanda's face is palpable, and she goes straight for his arms, leaning heavily on him as they embrace.

Loki, his face the picture of dutiful innocence, nods at Vision before turning to us. At the sight of all our eyes on him, our expressions nowhere near friendly, he blanches slightly, but keeps up the earnestly somber facade. I have my bow raised and arrow notched before he can take another breath, and his eyes dart to me as he raises his hands in surrender.

"Before you say anything," he starts slowly. "Know that I just saved your friend's life."

"How convenient," Steve says, eyes hard. He holds himself stiffly, Natasha staying close to his side in case the blood loss decides to finally hit him.

Loki raises his chin. "Two Dravec warriors were dragging her into the jungle."

"And you being the noble hero you are, decided to rescue her out of the goodness of your heart."

I see Scott and Peter exchange confused, wary looks. Bucky, Sam, and Rhodes haven't had the pleasure of meeting Loki either, but have surmised enough to guess who he is. What he's done.

"It's true."

We turn to look at Wanda, her face worn, Vision holding her carefully. "I would have been dead if he hadn't-" she cuts herself off, eyes flickering to him, then narrowing slightly, like she knows there was an ulterior motive, like she doesn't trust him even still. If she wasn't so drained and about to collapse, I have no doubt she'd me reading his mind like an open book.

"So you see?" Loki adds. "I'm on your side."

Then my arrow finds its home in his upper right arm. He staggers back, face incredulous and pained as he looks from the arrow, to me. In fact, everyone is looking at me.

"What?" I shrug, spinning my bow and attaching it to the holster on my back. "My finger slipped."

" _Slipped_ ," Loki spits, seething and outraged like a cat that's just been tossed in the bathtub.

"Good thing, too, because if I had been aiming, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"You dare-"

"Loki, enough," Thor commands sternly.

"He shot me!"

"Like you haven't done anything to deserve it," Thor says. "Let it go, brother. And perhaps they will too."

"Yeah, don't hold your breath," adds Tony. "A little Asgardian jail time ain't gonna cut it for what you did on Earth, pal."

Loki's jaw clenches as he rips the arrow from his arm.

"Ok, we got a lot of people bleeding here, and Pete over there looks like one stray breeze will knock him over. Mind if we move this debate to the jet?" Sam cuts in.

I glance over at the kid, who is swaying slightly, his pupils so overblown he looks like a cartoon character. "What?" he asks blearily, noticing our attention.

"Oh hey, guys, look!" cries the rock alien behind Peter, pointing down the hillside. "Guys, it's Miek! He's alive!"

We split to get out of his way as he jogs down to what looks like a purplish slug creature inching slowly across the wreckage. Bending to pick it up, rock-man lifts the slug into his arms and says, "I thought you were dead! Guys, look at this! Miek's alive! Hey, New Miek, look!"

Peter waves down at him, grinning tiredly.

"This is the weirdest day of my life," says Scott.

"I have summoned the shuttle to our location," T'Challa approaches, helmet under his arm, flanked by Okoye and Shuri. "It will be a tight fit, but it will be able to take all of us back to our ship outside the planet's atmosphere."

Steve takes a look around at everyone. All of us looking like shit, but miraculously alive.

He takes a deep breath.

"Let's go home."

* * *

 **A/N: Ahhhhhh there it is. The battle is won, the Dravec destroyed, our heroes live, and they can FINALLY go back home to Earth. You guys didn't really think I'd kill anybody off yet, did you? Hmm? I said yet? That's not ominous at all, is it, with two more stories in this series to go, huh? ;)**

 **And Miek number one is alive! And reunited with Korg! WOOH! You guys can all finally breathe that sigh of relief now. We did it! And the fic is NOT OVER! We still got some chapters coming of recovery, debriefing, fluff, maybe some angst, and reunifications back on Earth.**

 **Super Exciting News here! PippinStrange is writing a gift fic for my birthday (which was yesterday) where she and I are summoned by Dr. Strange to aid the Avengers in a moment of crisis. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to get some insight into PippinStrange and I, and see your devoted authors hang out with the Avengers and face terrors unknown, go check it out! It is freaking hilarious and SO accurate to how I would react and what I would say! LOL! I'm dying. It's one of my favorites and such a fun, light read that has me just cracking up uncontrollably. You guys will love it. She's also been an unbelievable beta, so I have so so much to thank her for! YOUR GIFT FIC IS COMING UP NEXT GIRL, I HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN IT!**

 **Speaking of which, I will have more details on the next couple fics to be released at the conclusion of this fic.**

 **PippinStrange and I have been participating in inktober this month on our instagrams! If you'd like to follow us there, head to our profiles to get our usernames and come check out our drawings! :)**

* * *

sparklydog9: YAS lol Hope you enjoyed your popcorn! ;)

EleanorGardner: Yes, it definitely should! Darn typo slipped straight through my edits. Yes lots more content to come! And thanks!

Heroes21: :D

StarStepper: :D LOL! Sorry, I couldn't resist! I'm a mean author ;)

DarylDixon'sLover: They lived!

Writer-at-Heart0: Omg thank you! Don't worry, a hug most definitely is in store for our boys ;)

Puppens101: Lol! I'm glad you liked that line! I added it last minute. ;) Sorry I freaked you out but I hope it was worth the wild ride!

EmilyF.6: Thank you so much! Peter's my favorite too, but I've found lots of POVs I now really enjoy writing. So glad you enjoyed!

niyah606: AHHHH your review made me SO HAPPY! :D I LOVE THE FEELING OF FANGIRL HIGH! I love it even more when someone fangirls that hard over something I wrote! Thank you so much!

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Blaney: Wow, thank you so much! So glad you enjoyed that chapter! (And I've been saving the yippee ki yay line for SO LONG! XD)

carajiggirl: THank you!

readingisapriority: OMG! "Infinity War-who? Isn't this the MCU?" #dead #sodead #youkilledme THANK YOU SO MUCH OMGGGGG

Lailuh: Gosh that would be so cool! To have hard copies of this series, oh man.

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The Striking Storms: Your faves live! :D

Kairianna864: So glad you enjoyed! Hope you liked this chapter as well!

Kirby Lane: LOL You were so right. The Dravec were toast. ;) And Peter tripping XD I cracked myself up with that one too

cargumentluv: Ahhhh thank you! There were a lot of moments and one liners in these chapters that I've been saving forever! SO glad you enjoyed and hope you got some sleep! lol

Guest: OMGGG thank you! I sort of love stressing you guys out? Because I'm that mean! XD Thank you so so much! I remember back in Paint it Black I was so intimidated by Bucky, who I was never super familiar with as a character, especially writing him, and now I can't imagine the story without him! I am glad you love it!

Sara B: WOW that was quite the review! I loved it! I hope we get to visit each other's countries someday too! Disneyland in southern California is my favorite place in the whole world, so I recommend starting there ;) And Yes! Yay for no carpal tunnel! Worth the creepy doctor. lol. I LOVE hearing all your favorite parts and lines! You picked out so many of my personal favorites as well! And omg Chris Evan's news. :( Broke my heart so thoroughly I immediately went into denial. I'm glad you liked everything with Clint and with Tony! I really enjoyed writing the different dynamics within the Avengers team.

NCC-1701-Z: I love having Peter interact and learn from different members of the team too! It's so fun playing with the characters and putting others together, especially ones we don't see in the movies as much. Clint "adopting" the younger avengers is such a fun dynamic. :D I love hearing your thoughts about the characters and relationships and story! Thank you so much!

Ghost Staffie: Ooooh South West London! Where Tom Holland hails! So cool! And yes, it's definitely a paradox! XD But I couldn't resist. Also, BREATHE! LOL!

JustAnotherFan57: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO REVIEW! It means so much to me to hear from you guys, and your words were so kind! It makes me so happy to hear how much my writing makes your day, and I really appreciate it! Thank YOU!

icotnoir: Eeeee thank you! THANK YOU SO MUCH! And Thanks for the advice! I definitely plan on taking advantage of stretching and massage therapy. Thanks!

KHARAKI TAKAN: thanks!

gandalf537: Ahhhhh thank you! :D I loved those lines too! LOL! :D :D :D Hopefully the wait didn't kill you! lol! This finale was so fun to write!

MewWinx96: Hi! Thank you very much!

LoonyLovegood1981: "I know him! He's a friend from work!" LOL One of the best lines from that movie! I also really loved writing Wanda in this fic and having her focus be on Vision. ;) Thank you so so much! This universe of mine has a lot more in store!

Rose: Thank you! Lots of happy endings to come :)

BeccaRave: Thank you! Yes, I'd love to do an east coast trip just to visit all the historical locations! My best friend went and loved it! That's really cool that it's just part of your daily life!

akashadowcat: Omg THANK YOU! What an amazing review! You are so kind! :D :D :D I'm so glad you're enjoying!

screechyfangirl: LOL SAME XD

Kami07: Gosh thank you! WOW! Don't apologize! Thank you for reviewing! I love hearing your thoughts and how much you're enjoying the journey! Makes my heart so happy! Truly, thank you! :D Ahhhh! I'm trying really hard to keep the characters themselves canon, and their histories, but swerving HARD away from Infinity War, because as much as I loved that movie and am utterly broken and terrified with what the MCU is doing, I want to keep this cast going! lol! Thank you very much for reviewing! And Argentina! Wow!

Bishi-bishi: LOL! THank you! I love hearing everybody's favorite parts and lines so much! Thank you very much! I love writing in multiple povs. It's so interesting trying to capture each character's voice. CHRIS EVANS TWEET UGH MY HEART. Also this is my first year doing inktober! So far it's challenging but enjoyable. :) Sorry you can't participate! It's definitely hard trying to find the time on top of everything else. Glad you are enjoying this and sticking along this journey! THank you so so so much!

AllShallFade777: THank YOU for all of your reviews through the fics! Most people who read through and catch up just do one big one at the end so it was fun seeing reviews for my older stories too! Thank you so much! I know, the struggle is real for catching up to a fic or tv series and having to wait for the next installments! lol! Dr. Strange…perhaps. ;) You'll just have to wait and see. I have not played the new Spider-man game! I don't have a playstation :( But I've heard its amazing! Did you love it?

GinaBoo: Ahhh glad you are loving this! It was definitely intense! lol! I definitely plan on writing more stories in this series, going back to focusing largely on Peter and a handful of others. Two more stories are already in the works! And thanks so much!

AppleSpongeCake: You will have to wait, but trust me when I say, it will SO be worth it. ;) I've put a lot of thought on how to incorporate her work into mine after that mind blowing cameo she did in Where They Go. I also miss the Peter centric stuff and the venom storyline. And I will say that the end credits scene of Silent Night with Venom wasn't just for fun. (Insert quiet maniacal laugh here)

NZGuest: THank you! :D :D :D Hello New Zealand! That's amazing!

Shannon: Thanks! Glad you are enjoying! I am definitely continuing this series, with two more stories for sure to come! I've given lots of thoughts to how to continue the CMFU, and have actually written a great deal for the next installments already, and some notes as well. It's gonna be epic. And YES PippinStrange is AMAZING

Guest: Hello Canada!

* * *

 **GUYS YOU SLAYED THIS REVIEW THING! :O Can't tell you what it means to get this flood of emails with such detailed and loving reviews. I love hearing your favorite parts and relationships and lines and moments! I live for these reviews!**

 **A few more side notes before the Coming Soon section of the Author's Note!**

 **-One, yes, I am continuing this series when it is done. See my author's page for the title names of the two upcoming fics which I am already working on.**

 **-Two, my wrists are bothering me from getting overexcited about writing again. lol. So the next few chapters won't come as quickly as these finale ones have, but I wanted to get you guys through the suspense and action before slowing down. May be a little while before the next chapter, but thank you for all your support and love and patience and health tips!**

 **-Three, another reason it might take me a bit to post the next chapter is the amount of art commissions I am getting at the moment. I am also an artist who does tattoo designs, realistic portraiture, and character illustrations! You can see my work on instagram ( mscrystalbeard) And if any of you are actually interested in commissioning an art piece from me, send me a pm and we** **can chat ideas and rates. I can do quite a bit, so if any of you super fans wanted to commission a drawing of perhaps characters or a scene from this series, I could definitely make that happen!**

 **-Four, LOVE YOU GUYS. CAN'T SAY IT ENOUGH! YOU ROCK MY WORLD**

* * *

 **COMING SOON**

 **Chapter Eighteen: Far Away Places**

 **They did it. The Dravec are defeated. The Avengers are alive and together again and on their way back home. Injuries are treated, some more dire than they had first appeared, stories are shared, and friends are reunited at last.**


	18. Far Away Places

**CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Far Away Places**

* * *

...

...

 **Peter Parker**

Despite Cap's proclamation, we don't actually go home right away. There's getting onto the shuttle, cramming together and flying to the larger ship outside of the planet's atmosphere. Then there's treating injuries, reunifications, and a lot of technical stuff that kind of goes in one ear and out the other. I'm running on steam, here.

But I do know that a team is being deployed to the Dravec's main ship, which has already been cleared of the aliens, to download all data and records, take samples of their weapons and tech, and I think someone mentioned trophies and funeral rites?

I shudder.

What would they have taken if they'd killed me? Just my mask? My suit? My head?

"If you're gonna puke, do it in the bag," Clint hands me a bundle of crinkly plastic. "None of us want to smell vomit the whole trip home."

I give him a shaky grin. "Thanks. Didn't expect to see you here."

He raises a brow. "You kidding? Date night is coming up, and I need my sitter. Coop would have been pissed if we had to call old Mrs. Nelson."

I snort, then hiss and clutch my head as the gesture sends pain ricocheting up my skull. "Ow."

Clint claps a hand on my shoulder. "I'll get Bruce over to look at that noggin of yours."

"I'm right here."

I squint up at him, about four of the man standing in front of me and wavering around the edges. Mr. Stark is right behind him, which really starts to mess with my vision.

"What about Cap?" I say. "Pretty sure he's a lot worse off than me. And Bucky. And-"

"Relax, kid. We're on it. They're being treated too," Dr. Banner says, pulling a pack from under his arm to set on the bench next to me. "Let's check out that concussion, yeah?"

"Yeah. Okay."

Clint pats my arm before heading to the other side of the ship to join Wanda and Vision.

"Did you black out when you hit your head?" Dr. Banner asks, shining a light in my eyes that sends spears of pain through my eyeballs all the way to the back of my skull.

"Uh..." I blink. "Ummm…"

"He did," Bucky calls from not too far away. "For a couple minutes."

"Apparently I did."

Dr. Banner clicks his tongue. "Grade 3, kid. I'd ask you questions like the date and what city you're in, but considering I don't even know what day it is, why don't you start with your full name?"

"Peter Benjamin Parker."

"And you live?"

"With my aunt in Queens. I was probably only out for like a second. I'm fine," I insist, rubbing my ears. "Could you not speak so loud?"

"That's the oversensitivity, not me."

"Oh."

He proceeds to test my coordination and reflexes, which could be better if I wasn't so exhausted and malnourished from being hunted on an alien planet for god knows how long. Then he and Mr. Stark start talking, and I let my eyes fall shut, closing off the too bright lights and leaning back against the wall of the ship.

Just for a minute. God, I'm so tired.

"Hey, stay with me," Dr. Banner's voice pulls me awake, my head jerking when he speaks. "Why don't you tell me what happened after you left the cave while I look at the rest of your injuries."

"They chased me," I say, yawning hugely as Dr. Banner cuts away the top half of my suit. I hear hisses of sympathy and look down to see the dark, mottled bruises covering nearly every inch of my skin like a poorly done watercolor painting, interrupted with cuts and burns.

"I'm purple," I say with surprise.

"That you are," Dr. Banner says tightly. "Go on."

"Uh...I tried to hide. Think maybe I turned into...a rabbit? I remember being a rabbit, and then I was me and they found me. The big one killed the one I-oh shit."

"What?" asks Mr. Stark.

"I stabbed one," I admit. "On accident!"

"Kid, no one's going to blame you for stabbing one of the murderous bastards that tried to hunt and slaughter you," Mr. Stark says exasperatedly.

"I felt bad."

"Of course you did."

"Then what?" Dr. Banner asks as he begins wiping at my skin with a damp, white cloth that stings. Badly.

"Then...then I was in a cage. And I met Korg," I glance over and the alien waves at me, the slug-like Miek cradled in his arms. I quickly realize where this story is going and veer sharply left. "Then we escaped and freed all the dinosaurs and came to your rescue."

"Our rescue, huh?" Mr. Stark raises a brow.

"Oh you skipped a bit," Korg interjects helpfully. "Tell them about the part where we got recaptured and the leader pinned you down and nearly branded you. That was intense."

My lips mash together as I give Korg a sharp, exasperated look. He waves again.

The ship has gotten infinitely quieter.

"I'm sorry," says Mr. Stark, voice tight. "Did he say _branded_?"

I wince, more awake than I was a few seconds ago. "Er...well...sort of?"

"Yeah, branded!" says Korg. "You know, with one of those red hot pokers twisted into a Dravec symbol? The thing was only a couple inches away before it got distracted enough for you to get free. I was terrified on your behalf."

"Thanks, Korg," I say through clenched teeth. "They get it."

"Holy crap," breathes Dr. Banner, and I swear I hear Bucky's knuckles crack. "How'd you get free?"

"Actually, I think I have you to thank for that. They heard the Hulk, and I was able to get it off me."

"What the-is this-is this from a _whip?"_

I wince. Clearly he's moved onto my back. "Er...yeah."

"Jesus Christ," Mr. Stark rubs his eyes, not even bothering to look. "Is there any way you _didn't_ get injured on this trip?"

"Well…" I blink slowly and take too long to answer while I think.

"I think that's enough story time for now, okay kid?" Mr. Stark says. "Bruce, is he good to pass out now?"

I yawn widely as something wet and cool is spread along the welt on my back.

"Yeah, he's good. His super healing is already kicking in, and if he's anything like Steve, sleep will make it go faster. Just wake him up every ten or so to make sure."

Thank god. I feel like I could sleep for a month. I go to fall back on the bench, but Mr. Stark grips my shoulder before I can do so.

"Easy, turbo. You do not want to lay on that back of yours right now."

I wince. "Right. Thanks."

He helps ease me onto my stomach, and I fold my arms underneath my head, cringing at the way it stretches my skin painfully. I yawn again. "Hey, Mr. Stark?"

"Yeah, kid?"

"Next time, can I save you instead? This getting captured thing is kinda getting old."

He snorts, and my eyes fall shut. "Sure thing."

It takes less than a second for me to pass out.

* * *

 **Wanda Maximoff**

"Can I ask you something?"

I look up as Loki takes a seat across from me. He really must have a death wish.

"Just how did you get those phenomenal powers of yours? Born? Or burdened?"

I'm not stupid. I am aware that my abilities are what has drawn him to me. It was written all over his mind that first time I took a look. This is a man hungry for power, attracted to it, willing to go to any lengths to get it.

"I don't see how it's any business of yours," I say, feeling Vision's eyes on me from across the ship.

"Indulge me," Loki's lips curve. "After all, I did save your life."

I eye him warily. My body is still too drained to even risk looking into that mind again, so I will have to guess his intentions through our conversation. "They were the result of an experiment done upon my brother and I," I say carefully.

"Must have been awful."

"It was my choice."

A flash in those eyes. "So your brother? He shares your abilities?"

"He's dead."

Loki's face turns solemn at my tone. "I'm sorry."

"So am I."

"May I ask about what sort of experiment it was? Forgive me, I just seek to understand."

I wonder why. Perhaps he hopes to recreate the trials himself to add to his power, to create monsters of his own. Perhaps in learning my origins, he hopes to somehow wield something over me, his knowledge of the staff greater than my own.

"I'm surprised you do not know," I finally answer, eyes narrowed. "As my powers were born from your scepter."

His eyes widen, the first true emotion I've seen on his face. Wonder, shock, intrigue, all flickering in those dark depths. I can see the wheels of his mind turning, but cannot read them.

"My scepter?" he breathes.

"Yes," Vision says from behind him, and Loki turns quickly. "As did mine."

The Asgardian's eyes flick up to the yellow stone in Vision's forehead.

"Wanda needs rest," Vision says evenly, his tone polite but eyes hard. "If you'll excuse us."

"Of course," Loki says generously, rising to his feet. "I'll take my leave." He glances at me one last time before he makes his way towards the back of the large ship.

Loki passes by Clint, who hasn't taken his eyes off of him since he arrived. "How's the arm?" Clint asks, and the Asgardian shoots him a glare.

"You should be sleeping," Vision admonishes quietly.

"I know," I say with a sigh, watching as Bruce and Tony work on treating the boy's injuries. "I'm too tired to sleep...if that makes any sense. My body wants to, but my mind doesn't believe we are quite out of danger yet."

"Of course it makes sense. You went through a great trauma."

I shoot him a glance. "You were there too, Vis."

"Yes, well, I was unconscious for a great deal of it," he says with a wry smile.

The reminder twists at my insides, and I squeeze my eyes shut.

"Wanda."

I don't answer.

Hands draw me close, sweep my hair back over my shoulder, and I open my eyes to see his strange ones intent on me. "I'm alright," he insists gently, hands on my upper arms. "Thanks to you."

"I almost couldn't-you almost," I breathe out sharply, bowing my head so our foreheads meet. "Don't do that to me again. I don't know if I...I can't lose you, Vis. I can't."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Promise me," I whisper fiercely, placing my hands on his chest, on the fragile bindings where a gaping hole once rested. I'm trembling, feeling cold and shaken.

Vision hesitates. "You know that kind of promise is out of my hands. I can fight to my last breath and work to be careful to increase the odds of my survival, but to say that I won't get injured or killed is statistically-"

"Vision," I interrupt sharply, placing my fingers on his mouth as I take a deep breath. "Please...just...please."

A moment of silence, and then, "I promise."

* * *

 **Tony Stark**

Branded. He'd almost been branded.

Jesus Christ.

Instead, he'd escaped with just a concussion, a thousand bruises, cuts, burns, and a massive welt along his back where he was struck by a whip.

Then there's the mental and psychological scars to consider. Being hunted like an animal...it has to do something terrible to your mind. Add on to what the kid has already been through in his life...shit.

I make a mental note to talk to Sam once we get back. There won't be any more sweeping things under a rug for that kid. He's recovered remarkably well after Hydra and Venom, but I've always thought that he still needed to talk to someone about it all. A professional.

And now? I'm making damn sure it happens. A prerequisite to becoming an official Avenger, which the kid has undoubtedly earned after this.

Okoye is communicating with T'Challa on their kimoyo beads, and I overhear that his team has finished getting the equipment and data they came for. As well as the remains of their people from that horrific trophy room I had no interest in ever seeing. They're on their way back now.

Good. I want to get the hell out of here.

I walk over to the princess, who is finishing her examination of Barnes's mess of a shoulder where his bionic arm should be.

"Hmm," she says.

I raise a brow. "Hmm what?"

"I'm just wondering why you integrated the processor to the nerves in his shoulder instead of going straight for the source, to the nervous system itself."

"That would require installing a chip in his brain. Pretty sure he's had enough of people scrambling around that head."

Barnes shoots me a grateful look.

"Not his brain," Shuri shakes her head. "His spine. If we rerouted the wires here to connect with the nerves attaching to his brain stem here, the arm's capabilities would increase by forty six percent."

I stare. Barnes raises a brow at me.

"Well...that's one way to do it."

They both snort.

"I was also thinking," Shuri's eyes light up. "About the Dravec technology they are bringing back from the ship. If we integrated their alloys with our vibranium, we could-"

"No."

Shuri and I look at Barnes, his face dark and one hand clenched. "No Dravec anything."

The princess looks like she will argue, but I put a hand on her slim shoulder. "No Dravec," I nod, meeting Barnes's gaze. After what they went through, I don't blame him.

Natasha's voice in the distance is soft, but the alarm in it has everyone's attention going to the back of the ship as she says, "Steve?"

Barnes goes rigid, and I whirl.

The redhead assassin has a hand on his uninjured shoulder, her face creased with concern. Then I see why.

Steve's skin is sheet white. There's not even color in his lips, which are parted as his glassy eyes struggle to focus. Blood loss, I think, but then I look at the shoulder Okoye had just finished cleaning and stitching. Black veins creep over the curve of his shoulder, spider webbing across his chest.

My blood goes cold.

Steve's knees buckle, and Natasha catches him the best she can, but his weight sends both of them to the ground. We're running, Bruce and Okoye and Sam and I, as Natasha calls Steve's name again.

Our hands are on him, lowering him to his stomach on the ground.

The wound from the spear is the size of my hand, and I can see the professional manner in which it had been cleaned and stitched by Okoye's steady hand. No sign of infection. No inflamed skin or pus or swelling.

But dark mottled patches spread around it, black veins in a thick cluster encircling the wound and scattering in every direction.

"What is that?" breathes Bruce in horror.

Steve's chest rises and falls in short bursts, his breathing shallow and uneven. His eyes stare dazedly at the wall.

"It's...alright," he mutters distantly. "Just...blood loss, I think. I just need...to rest."

Sam and I share looks of alarm, and I snap in front of Cap's face as his eyes start to drift shut. "Hey, HEY! Look alive, Rogers! Don't you go passing out on us yet."

Because it isn't blood loss. Not by a long shot.

It's poison

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Hey strangers. I can't apologize enough for the super long delay in between updates. With getting a new, full time job, holiday craziness, and art commissions, I had ZERO time to do hardly any writing. But I have LOTS of good news.**

 **First off, for those who are still wondering about the continuation of this series, you are in luck. I've added even more stories to the series that I plan on writing. (Aaaaand have actually written a lot of scenes for already). Here's the order starting after Riders is finished. Hunted, Sound of Silence, Enter Sandman, Seeing Red, and In the End. Yes, Venom WILL be making another appearance in this series, but not in Riders. Yes, there will be LOTS of new villains and characters. I'm SO excited for all of these stories and wish I had more time to write. It may be a long time between updates and posting stories, but rest assured I am NOT giving up on the CMFU. EVER. I have too much goodness to write. ;)**

 **Second! I am also, because I'm certifiably insane, starting ANOTHER fic at the same time that I will be finishing this one and starting Hunted, the next in this series. This other fic will be SEPARATE from the CMFU. For those of you who have read my two-shot, Let Freedom Ring, and have been asking me to turn it into a full novel instead of a short ficlet, your wish has finally been granted. I will be writing a full length story detailing the events of that short fic, and I am really looking forward to sharing with you. Might even post the prologue soon! Keep your eyes out for it!**

 **I sincerely thank you all for your reviews and continued support even though I've been a bad updater and left you hanging so long...and then returned with a cliffhanger. Lol. I will do my best to get another chapter to you as soon as I can, but I haven't even started it yet, and my muse is a wild, primitive thing. You guys are amazing and I miss and adore each and every single one of you!**

 **GUYS! Have you read PippinStrange's Avenge the Departed? HOLY EFFING SCHMIDT! This is the real deal guys. Are you missing quality fics with well thought out and detailed plotlines, an intermeshing of all the Avengers with focus on our favorite, Peter Parker? LOOK NO FURTHER. And no, this is not a paid ad. I've just read this thing four times (In it's entirety, because I am lucky enough to be her beta) and it is legit the best fic on this website. If you haven't, go read it now, because it has everything. EVERYTHING. You won't regret it.**

 **REVIEW REPLIES:**

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**

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 **AppleSpongeCake: Venoooom. Yes. I can't wait to share with you guys the return of that particular villain. Gonna be awhile yet, but I promise it will be worth it.**

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 **Sara B. : Bless you for the length of your outrageously kind review. I loved writing Okoye and nat together. ANd goosebumps? Really? Eeee! I loved hearing your favorite parts. THose are my favorite things to read in reviews, as everyone's favorite bits are usually mine as well! THank you SO MUCH!**

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 **icotnoir: Ah thanks! Many, many more installments to come! And yeah, the Venom reintroduction is gonna be INSANE. I can promise you that.**

 **Guest: WELCOME! ANd thank you for reviewing! And yeah, I've definitely been slacking on Ao3. On fanfiction in general. I'm so glad you like my work and so nice to meet you!**

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 **Heroes21: SORRY! I TOOK SO LONG!**

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 **WolfsHonor: HELLO AGAIN! Your review was the final push I needed to get this chapter finished and posted, so thank you for that! And thank you for your kind words! I remember your awesome notes in the past and really appreciate you taking the time to write me another! THANK YOU! It made me so happy to read. I love playing with the relationships and dynamics and seeing where this universe is going to go. And with what i have written for the future fics, the ride is gonna be INSANE! Thank you so much!**

* * *

 **I wish I could have given you guys a longer chapter, but I figured any kind of update is better than no update, and I will endeavor to make the next chapter longer and hopefully sooner than three months! GEEZ! I"M SO SORRY! I HOPE YOU GUYS ARE STILL WITH ME!**

 **COMING UP: CHAPTER NINETEEN**

 **The Dravec were advanced in so many ways. Their tech. Their strategies. Their strength and weapons. And, of course, so is their poison. As Steve fights for his life, the others frantically search for an antidote before they make the long trek home. Will they succeed? Or will there be one less Avenger returning to Earth?**


	19. Long Black Veil

**CHAPTER NINETEEN-LONG BLACK VEIL**

* * *

 **...**

 **...**

 **Thor**

Stalking through the halls of the Dravec ship, I feel every ounce of the weariness plaguing me. Too long I've gone without worthy sustenance. Too long I've been hunted like a common tuatholin on a foreign world. Too long have my people been without their king.

"They are well," Heimdall assures me at my right.

My gaze cuts to him, his golden eyes bright in the dim crimson light staining the hall like blood. "I thought your eyes could not see our people."

"They could not pierce through the haze of that planet's atmosphere. The treachery and bloodshed of the Dravec was too thick, it clouded my vision. But I can see them now. Valkyrie has kept them safe, as she swore."

I raise a brow.

"They may all be inebriated," Heimdall amends. "But they are well enough."

A smile dares to curl itself upon my lips. "I am pleased to hear it."

"And eager to receive their king, I might add. The world they have sheltered on is no home."

"I have thought on this much," I tell him as the towering hall begins to curve. "I know no better place for them than Earth."

Heimdall is silent for several minutes, and the sounds of our boots pounding on the metal grate of the ship echo loudly in my ears.

"You have a fondness for Earth and its people," he starts. "And I have seen why. The friends you have made, the allies you have forged, they are to be commended."

"But?" I prompt, hearing the weight in his voice.

"But our people have suffered a trauma that none ever should. The destruction of Asgard, their homes, their history, the only world many of them have ever known...Earth may welcome them, but is it a place to create a New Asgard? To rebuild our culture anew? A place that will truly be their home?"

I frown, and another kind of weariness settles over my shoulders like a kingly mantle. "I know not then, what I should do, if things are as you say."

My friend's hand settles upon my shoulder. "Let us focus on the present, and think on the future at a later time, when you've had a chance to rest."

"You are a good friend."

"You are a good king."

We reach a looming set of double doors, the height nearly those of the ones in my father's great hall, before it was destroyed. I push them open, a hand on each door, and together, Heimdall and I enter the trophy room, where another king waits.

T'Challa, I have learned, is the king of Wakanda, a great nation that until recently, had obscured itself from the eyes of their neighbor countries.

He stands regal in the center of the room, his helmet left on his own ship, so that I can see the multitude of expressions crossing his face. Expressions I know well and still feel in my own chest. T'Challa stares at a jagged uniform upon the wall, and I cross the length of the room to stand beside him.

"Fifty years ago," he begins. "My people were taken by these monsters and hunted as you were. They were not as fortunate."

I look at him, seeing the pain, the king's guilt that he bears well, though he was too young to have ruled at that time when his warriors were abducted and slaughtered. My hand grips his shoulder, king standing beside king, feeling the weight of our pasts, of our people upon us.

"It is no easy thing," I murmur. "To rule."

"No," T'Challa agrees heavily. "It is not. Had I the ability, I would wipe this ship and the planet below out of existence entirely."

"Come," I say. "Let us gather up these remnants of tragedy."

He meets my eye, and I continue, feeling a burning within my blood.

"And then we will do the Dravec the greatest dishonor we can reap upon them, and wipe every trace of them from the universe."

T'Challa's jaw sets, and I see the same fire in his eyes as he claps my shoulder in return.

"Let's begin."

* * *

 **Scott Lang**

"And now you're back, from outer space! I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face!"

" _Please stop."_

"I should have changed that stupid lock-"

" _Scott."_

"I should have made you leave your key-"

" _Hey. Tic-tac. That's enough."_

"If I had known for just one second, you'd be back to bother me-"

" _SCOTT."_

I stop singing. "You know, you could have just hung up. I'm the one doing the grunt work here over on the U.S.S. Doomsday."

" _Steve wants us to keep communications open,"_ replies Sam in my ear. " _He's worried about stragglers. Doesn't want any surprises."_

"Trust me," I say, looking down at the cold corpses dotted around the massive weapons hall. "These guys are deader than dead. No more surprises on our end."

Sam's voice lowers. " _I think he's just a little rattled from everything. Dude also lost a hell of a lot of blood."_

From far in the distance, so faint I can barely hear it, Steve calls weakly, " _I heard that."_

" _Just tellin it like it is, man. Now shut up, and let the woman finish stitching you up."_

"Tell me again, why I don't have the pleasure of your company over here," I grunt as I drag what might be the Dravec's version of a grenade launcher or plasma cannon or whatever over to the pile I've stashed by the bay door. I'm trying to grab at least one of everything for the others to take apart and study to compare to our own tech back at home.

If it were me, I'd be leaving it all here to rot. The less psycho alien tech we have on Earth, the better.

" _Twisted my ankle in the fight."_

"Yeah, sure. Gotta watch out for those weak, delicate ankles of yours."

" _You know, the more you shut up, the faster it'll go, and then we can all go home."_

I drop the massive, heavy weapon onto the pile with a grunt of effort and bend over with my hands on my knees to catch my breath. "I work faster when I sing. You're the one slowing me down."

" _What's your guys's ETA?"_

"Well I'll have to check with the gods and kings," I straighten. "But I'm all finished on my end. Got enough weapons and tech and data to keep Stark and Shuri busy for the next ten years."

Sam's quiet for a minute, then says, " _Okoye's on their line with T'Challa. Sounds like they're wrapping up too and heading your way."_

"Good. I could use some super human strength to finish lugging this stuff onto the shuttle."

I open the bay doors and start taking the smaller items and boxes of tech and Dravec supplies I had loaded myself onto our shuttle. And for Sam's sake, start singing again. "Go on, now go! Walk out the door! Just turn around now 'cause you're not welcome anymore!"

" _I'm five seconds away from disobeying the Captain and muting this line."_

"What do you have against Gloria Gaynor?"

" _Her? Nothing. Your rendition? Everything."_

I consider this. "I got Taylor Swift in my arsenal, too. You want 'Shake it Off' or 'Bad Blood'?"

Silence.

"Where'd you go, Sammy?" I place a container of gray, fabric like bandages onto the stack in the shuttle's cargo. "I also do a mean 'Baby Shark'."

Nothing. Not even a groan.

Did he hang up on me?

I tap my ear piece. "Hey. What's with the silent treatment?"

Sam's voice returns, urgent, just as Thor, T'Challa, and….the other guy with the big sword whose name I can't recall, round the corner, massive black chests carried between them. " _We got a problem."_

I stiffen, locking eyes with T'Challa. "What kind of problem?"

" _The poison kind."_

"Shit," I breathe as Thor demands, "Who's been poisoned?"

" _It's Steve. Something must have been coating that spear that got him. Bruce is getting a sample of it right now, but we're gonna need the alien records to identify it to find the cure."_

"How bad is it?" I ask.

Tensely, tersely, Sam replies quietly. " _It's bad. Hurry up and get over here."_

"On it," I say as Thor and Heimdall load their black trunks onto the shuttle. T'Challa and I have just bent to lift some of the more massive weapons up to place with the others, when the dim red lights above begin to flicker.

We still, our eyes going up.

"Huh," I say.

"That is not your doing?" asks Heimdall warily.

"Yeah, not so much," I mutter as the lights go steady, then flicker more violently than before. My hands are on the handle of a particularly hefty weapon when I glance instinctively down the end of the hall.

My insides seize in instinctual terror at the sight of the massive figure looming there, gone one second in darkness, then there again, silhouetted against the red light of the ship.

"Shit!" I exclaim, straightening suddenly.

"What is it?" T'Challa demands.

I go to point at the figure down the hall, then freeze, dread draining along my insides at the sight of the empty space. "Ohhhhhhh that can't be good."

"Speak plainly," Thor says with a frown, a large crate in his hands. "What did you see?"

"There was something there," I insist, gesturing in the opposite direction. "I think it was a Dravec. Biggest one I've ever seen."

The lights flicker, then remain steady in their dim, ominous glow.

My words send a tension through the wide hall, but even so, T'Challa and Thor exchange looks. "We swept the whole ship," the Wakandan king says slowly. "Everything is dead."

Uh-uh. Nope. No way. "You guys, I'm telling you, it was there. I say we ditch the evil alien weapons and get the hell out of here. _Now._ "

Heimdall's eyes narrow, a flash of burnished gold. "A hasty retreat may be wise."

"You see something, my friend?"

We are submerged into darkness, and my breath catches sharply before red light flickers feebly back into existence. "Yeah...I'm done. It's always the red shirt that goes first, and guess who's uniform is red, guys? Guess. Nope. I'm out of here."

I take a step towards the shuttle, and then a large hand is seizing the back of my neck, gripping it tight and hard before I am wrenched to one side. Stumbling, my eyes are wide as a black spear goes shooting by a hair's breadth from my nose, close enough I nearly feel the sting of it slicing open my skin.

Thor keeps a steady hand on my shoulder as the weapon drives itself all the way to the hilt in the metal frame separating the Dravec ship from our shuttle.

As one, we all turn to look down the hall.

The lights flare erratically, casting the towering form in horrific crimson. My heart hammers in my chest at the sight of it, standing at least twelve feet tall. It's so large, I take it in pieces, the narrowed red eyes, the tear of its mouth, fangs bared, maskless. Black armor, thick and gleaming, decorated with streaks of red like badges of honor. Harsh tattoos like a jagged crown circling its brow, a row of glistening spikes running down the center of its head and down its back, growing larger and sharper as it goes. Weapons strapped everywhere.

"What is _that?"_

"If I am not wrong, and I rarely am," Thor says in all seriousness. "I think that's a Dravec Queen."

"A what?" I splutter. "How can you tell it's even female?"

"The females are uglier than the males."

Looking at the creature flickering in and out of sight at the end of the hall, I have to admit, he's not wrong. Cap wasn't paranoid after all, I realize, to worry about more on the ship, even though we would have bet money we'd wiped them all out.

The queen had hid, or maybe there was another part of the ship we hadn't even known was there. Or maybe she'd come up from the surface after deploying her armies and watching their destruction by our hands.

Oh shit.

"Get to the ship," Thor breathes. "Now."

The queen cocks her head, slowly, then reaches behind her back to draw out a gleaming black gun, the barrel like a cannon, large even in her massive hands.

"Move!" T'Challa yells.

We dive, scattering like ants from Raid as a crimson beam, hot and electric, blasts above our heads, the roar deafening and burning as some part of our shuttle explodes. I glance back in horror, but the only thing smoldering is a case of Dravec weaponry we had hauled aboard. The shuttle is still intact.

My vision is obscured as Heimdall leaps over my head, metal singing as he draws the massive sword from his back. Wide eyed, my gaze follows him as he charges down the hall at her, the gray fabric draped over his shoulders flaring like a cape, making him look like freaking Aragorn facing down Mordor itself.

The queen raises her smoking gun.

"No!" yells Thor, surging to his feet.

Red light explodes, flaring so bright it looks like it enveloped the warrior whole, and my insides clench in horror. But then the blast shifts, the light moving in a concentrated halt, and I realize that Heimdall is still miraculously alive, feet planted, sword before him, the metal blade absorbing the crackling energy emitting from the gun.

His teeth are clenched, brows furrowed and muscles bulging in strain, and then, as his shoulders bunch up together, he lets out a cry of effort and swings the sword in the queen's direction. The blast ricochets back down the hall, and the Dravec has to dive to the side, gun dropping from her gauntleted hands as she avoids the fatal explosion.

Heimdall is charging again, determined, sword still crackling with residual red electricity, but the queen has already risen, black blades sliding free from gaps in her wrists.

The lights go out, and there's the screeching sound of metal against metal before sparks burst in a flash, briefly illuminating Heimdall's fierce expression as he bears his sword against the combined might of the queen's wrist blades.

Darkness.

Red light flickers and fills the hall, just in time for us to see the Dravec Queen whirling, knives catching on the crossguard of the sword to wrench it from Heimdall's hands with a twist. Her black boot cracks into Heimdall's chest, and he hits the wall and crumples.

"NO!" Thor is bellowing again, having charged towards them the moment his friend had sent the blast back to the queen.

Lights out.

Lights on, and she has Thor against a wall. Both his hands are around her forearms, his muscles trembling as he barely stops her black wrist blades from driving up beneath his chin and into his skull.

T'Challa leaps onto her back, vibranium claws shining as he sinks them into the sides of her hideous face.

The queen shrieks, the sound ten times louder than the ones down on the alien planet, piercing my ears and making me cringe. She loosens her grip on the Asgardian to thrust her arms up, forcing T'Challa to flip off her back to avoid getting skewered by those blades.

Both kings regroup, one on each side of her, and she crouches, hate burning in her gaze as she prepares her attack.

"Hey!" I shout, drawing those malevolent eyes towards me. They widen as they see what I hold in my hands. "What does this do?"

Thor and T'Challa leap to the sides, backs against the walls as I pull back on the trigger mechanism of the huge plasma cannon in my hands.

I grin triumphantly as it flares with red light, the queen's eyes widening as she tenses, and then the weapon lets out a dull whine and stutter, the lights going out feebly with a disconcerting wheeze. My smile falls as I look down at the broken cannon, then back up at the others, trying to avoid Thor's incredulous look.

"To be fair, I've never used one of these before," I say.

The Queen spins, nailing T'Challa in the side with a vicious kick that sends him flying, then slashes out at Thor's throat.

He rolls against the wall, leaping away as her wrist blade slices through the metal of the wall. Her blows come again and again, lightning fast and expert, brutal and merciless. It's like if someone turned Natasha Romanov into a vicious, bloodthirsty alien and let her hone her murderous craft for a hundred years.

It's terrifying.

Still, I'm an Avenger now, and so far, I haven't exactly impressed the God of Thunder or the King of Wakanda.

So I charge after them, watching as Thor does his best to stave off her attacks, so focused on defense that he can't even get one blow in.

Her blade catches him across the chest and he cries out, stumbling back.

Here goes nothing, I think breathlessly, terror and exhilaration surging together into one freaky rush through my veins as I slam my helmet on my head and press the trigger attached to the side of my palm.

Lights out.

Lights flicker on, and the queen's expression twists with confusion and shock as our eye levels meet, as I race, twelve feet tall now myself, towards her.

"Pick on someone your own size," I say, unable to help myself, then slam my fist into her ugly mouth.

She goes staggering away, her whole body turning with the blow, straight into T'Challa's claws that he rakes across her eyes. Shrieking, screaming, she lashes out blindly with her wrist blades, and he darts away.

Black blood streams from the lines cut into her face, dripping from her ruined eyes across the hollows of her cheeks. She shrieks with each jagged breath, charging forward like a rabid animal, her fury and pain finally making her sharp moves sloppy and rushed.

Spinning, slashing out, I avoid her blades and punch her straight in her wounded eye, then when she rears her head back in pain, my fist jabs into her exposed throat.

Her screams cut off with an abrupt choke.

"How do you like that?" I taunt with a delirious laugh, buzzing with adrenaline and the thrill of standing so much taller than the muscled statures of the Asgardians. "I'm Sigourney Weaver, bitc-"

My word cuts off with a yell as her wrist blade drives into my right shoulder. Agony bursts, deep and white hot, stealing my breath as I stagger back into the wall, holding onto her gauntleted forearm as she drives it deeper. Hot breath fogs the visor of my helmet, fangs spreading as a vicious cry rips from her throat, her other arm raising high.

A gleam of metal, and then her victorious yell turns to another shriek of horrible agony, which I echo as she tears her blade from my shoulder. Blinking my watering eyes and clamping my left hand over my wound, I see several things that take my mind a few sluggish seconds to comprehend.

Heimdall stands there, sword in his hands, which is dripping with black blood like ink. A severed arm, encased in hammered armor, lies on the floor. And the Dravec Queen is crouched down the hall, screaming, bowing over herself as blood gushes from her shoulder where that arm used to be.

I blink. Once. Twice.

"Dude," I breathe. "You Mark Hamilled her."

Then the blood loss hits and I sink to the ground, my body shrinking back to its normal size in a delirious, dizzying rush.

Blue light battles against red as the air begins to crackle with energy. Thor's single eyes is glowing fiercely, electricity roiling across his skin as he charges into the air. Lightning bursts, around him, from him, through him, and plows into the Dravec queen in a white hot flash.

I blink away the spots in my eyes, seeing her on the ground, writhing and smoking and snarling.

T'Challa stands over her, a Dravec spear in his hands, and he puts a foot on her ruined chest, face dark and teeth bared as he says, "For Wakanda."

Then he drives the spear into her throat, the shrieks cutting off with sickening gurgles as her body convulses, then stills.

We all stare, breathless and hearts pounding, silence loud as the lights flicker one more time, then remain steadily on.

"Go team," I say feebly, then keel over and pass out.

* * *

 **Natasha Romanov**

I know my poisons.

An entire catalogue of them rests securely in the back of my mind, built and ingrained there from my years of training in the Red Room.

I'd like to say that I go through them efficiently and carefully in my head, sorting through chemical makeups and applications and time frames and antidotes in a methodical manner. But as Steve lies on the floor, black veins spider-webbing out beneath his skin from the stitched wound on the back of his shoulder, I am racing through my own mind, tossing over file cabinets and dumping out contents until my head is all fluttering pages and chaos.

Of course I know whatever he's been poisoned with won't be from Earth, and I won't find the answer waiting for me in a secure lockbox to open. But if I can identify the most comparable toxin we have, maybe it'll make identifying the alien poison faster, maybe we can slow the spread before it's too late.

My palms are clammy, my head dizzy as knowledge races through my head like the speedful skimming of webpage.

Polonium 210. Used to assassinate Alexander Litvinenko in 2006. Nearly impossible to detect and only truly dangerous if inhaled or injected.

Ricin. A few milligrams can kill a grown man when injected, swallowed, or inhaled, causing death in a few days at most.

VX. Most dangerous chemical nerve agent on the planet. 0.4 milligrams are all that's needed to-

Steve's hand tightens on mind, his glazed and glassy eyes looking up at me blearily, stealing my attention away. "I know that look," he murmurs, his voice clear and loud to me even over the cacophony of the others around us arguing and spitting out statistics and theories.

"Oh, do you?" I ask, brow raised, keeping my face and voice inexplicably calm, as if we are having this conversation over coffee instead of his deathbed on a Wakandan ship deep in space.

"You're panicking."

"I don't panic."

Steve's eyes flutter shut, and my heart seizes in my chest. "You hide it better than anyone else I know."

"Wouldn't be much of a spy if I couldn't."

His breathing is too shallow, a sheen of sweat coating the bare skin of his back as it rises and falls. A rolled bundle of blankets has been placed under his head to try and make him comfortable. My eyes zero in on his chapped, colorless lips as Bruce and Sam speak in hushed, hurried tones, their hands moving across his shoulder blade as they pull out a case of equipment.

There's not much they can do without identifying the poison first. Anything they could inject him with, any added compound into his system could pose a threat, working with the toxin instead of against. They keep up the semblance of working though, refusing to be idle, as much for their comfort as it is for Steve's.

BTX. Batrachotoxin. Steroidal alkaloid, harvested from poison dart frogs found deep in Latin America. Not able to be replicated or drawn up in laboratories, only within the frogs' natural environment.

"Talk to me," I say softly, urging those eyes to open again. "What's new with you?"

He manages a wry smile. "Not much. Took a vacation. Somewhere tropical. Wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Ran into some trouble with the locals."

Despite myself, my own lips curve, and I try not to notice when Steve's hand doesn't clench mine so tightly. "Also managed to pick up a virus, I see."

"Should have...gotten the vaccination before going...out of country."

"There's always next time."

Hie gaze turns distant. "Next time," he breathes.

I look up to look eyes with Bruce, my heart skipping at the panic I see in those brown depths. He speaks in a whisper, glancing down at Steve before looking back at me. "Have you ever seen anything like this?"

Slipping back into the archives, I'm screaming as I rip through file after file, feeling the blood staining my fingers. So many poisons I learned. So many I employed. So many…

Outwardly, I give a tight shake of my head, my jaw set.

Bruce's brows furrow, his face strained as he mutters an answer back at Sam. Beyond them, Clint, Rhodes, and Tony stand rigidly, helplessness etched in their tense forms. Bucky's leaning back against the metal cabinet, eyes locked on Steve's. I can see him going through his own mental catalogue of poisons and toxins.

Okoye and Shuri are at the monitors, scanning through what they already have of the Dravec technology to try and decipher what they can. But they won't have anything concrete until Scott and the others return.

Wanda kneels beside me, Vision standing at her back.

I look at her sharply, a stuttering in my chest as hope worms its way past my defenses.

Seeing my look, her weary expression goes guarded. "I don't know if I can help," she admits. "But I might be able to draw some of it out, at least stop the spread."

The others have gone silent as Wanda shifts to Steve's other side, across from me, and Bruce quickly makes room for her. None of us miss the way the young woman's hand trembles as her fingers hover above the wound. Movement shifts, and my eyes turn to narrow on Loki, hovering in the background, having moved closer as Wanda did.

Drawn to her, to her power, his clever gaze is locked curious on her hand. Feeling my stare, he looks up at me, his expression going carefully blank at my scrutiny.

There isn't time to do anything else, because a faint, scarlet glow draws my attention.

Wanda's fingers are curling, slow and graceful, but a slight tremor belays the fluidity of her motions. Her face is scrunched in concentration, her irises glowing in turn as a thread of brighter light connects her fingertip to the slash across Steve's skin.

His hand suddenly grips my hand too tight, immediately cutting off circulation as all the muscles in his back go rigid. I don't say anything or make a sound, but a concerned look from Bruce tells me he's noticed my discomfort. Steve could break every bone in my hand in an instant. I still wouldn't tear myself away from him in this moment. I won't let my friend bear this pain alone.

Wanda's breathing sharpens, and Vision's hand moves to her slender shoulder as her body gives a small shudder, like a chill has worked its way down her spine.

The red glow cast on Steve's pale skin makes the dark veins look even more ominous and repelling, but I swear their snaking lines have pulled back. Steve's grip on mine is tight, and his back no longer rises and falls. My eyes flit to his face in alarm, only to see that he's holding his breath, expression tight as he stares somewhere past me.

Light flares, and then Wanda slumps with a heavy sigh as her hand falls, and the light goes out. "I'm sorry," she says weakly. "If I were at full strength...and I don't...healing isn't…"

"It's alright," Bruce assures her, patting her other shoulder awkwardly. She looks at him in surprise, and he gives her a small smile. "You did good, kid."

Something passes between them, eases like a release of some silent tension I hadn't even known was there. An understanding. Forgiveness maybe.

Steve lets out the breath he was holding, his hand relaxing slightly against mine. "That was fun."

"Where the hell are the others?" Tony demands, his patience snapping. In the same moment, there's the sound of movement towards the back of the ship, and a tired voice slurs, "Whasgoin on?"

Stark immediately moves for Peter where the teen is sitting up, tired eyes blinking in alarm, and the two begin to converse in tight, hushed tones. It gives Tony something to do, and I'm grateful for the kid's timing. An idle, helpless Tony Stark can make any situation escalate quickly.

The whole ship shudders as the shuttle docks, and several members of our growing party move for the bay doors, clearing up the space enough for me to see Loki and the two other aliens clearly. Korg keeps gravely silent, stroking the back of his slug-like comrade in his arms.

I jerk my chin towards the Asgardian. "You strike me as the sort to be familiar with intergalactic poisons. Care to make yourself useful?"

Several pairs of eyes move towards him, and he tenses at the attention. Clint folds his arms over his chest, expression steely as he adds, "Or do you need some more persuasion?"

Loki cuts him a glare, then steps forward to get a closer look at the wound. My trained eye notices the slightest tension in Steve's body at the Asgardian's nearness. "I confess myself unfamiliar with the Dravec's culture and their use in toxic weaponry."

"So you're saying you are useless then," Clint says dangerously, and Rhodes smirks at his side.

Loki tenses. "I'm saying there's no way to tell just by looking at it. Now, if I were to have access to the Dravec's files, I could translate the information for you. But alas, we have nothing and so I can do nothing."

The bay doors open with a hiss, and Thor comes striding through, looking worse than he had when he left, something clutched in his fist. He tosses it to Shuri where she stands at the main console, and the princess immediately plugs the small piece of tech to the connecting cord.

"You were saying?" I say pointedly to Loki. He scowls.

A great deal of groaning has my head whipping towards the doors again as Scott comes limping through, pale and bleeding, arm slung over T'Challa's shoulder, Heimdall close behind them with a black crate in his hands.

"This is it," groans Scott. "I'm done for...this is the end for me...promise you'll build a monument in my honor."

T'Challa's face is less than sympathetic. "The wound is not even that deep. You passed out from shock, not blood loss."

"...are you sure?"

Sam moves to Scott's side as the king deposits him on a bench and moves to join his sister. Tony steps forward, Peter half a step behind as the older man demands, "What the hell happened?"

"We were ambushed by the Dravec Queen," Thor says.

"The _what?!"_ Peter exclaims, eyes round.

"Fear not. She was no match for our combined might. Her soul is being dragged to the gates of hell alongside her soldiers as we speak."

Peter's gaping mouth shuts with an abrupt click.

Shuri exclaims, "Got it!", and red light glares from the screen as Dravec symbols flit across it. Clint clamps a hand down on Loki's shoulder, who goes rigid, and the archer says, "Hop to it, oh mighty translator." Then his voice drops so low I can barely hear it. "If you need more incentive, think of what that moment will be like if you let Cap die in a room full of every pissed off and devastated Avenger in the universe."

Pale faced, Loki joins the Wakandans at the console.

Bruce passes off a sample of blood he'd drawn from Steve to Vision, who swiftly takes it to be tested and examined in order to compare it to what we are hoping is a list of poisons and antidotes in the Dravec files.

Steve's hand is limp in mine.

I look down sharply, alarmed, to see his eyelids shut and his face sheet white.

"Steve?"

I slip my hand out of his, putting fingers to his pulse point and one hand on his back. Everything is utterly still.

Steve Rogers isn't breathing.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, ONE more cliffhanger. That's it. I promise.**

 **I am working on the next chapter as diligently as I can, and it will definitely be significantly longer than these ones, so may take a little while. Also, if you haven't already noticed, I posted the first chapter of My Country 'tis of Thee, an expansion of my Let Freedom Ring two-shot. I will try to update that one soon as well, but we shall see what I have time for.**

 **You GUUUUUYS. PippinStrange's new fic has me fangirling so hard it's not even funny. I even dreamed about it the other night, no joke. It's going to be one insane ride, and you should most definitely check it out, as well as her other work, if you haven't already.**

 **I'm keeping this author's not relatively short as I'm sick and must go back to bed, but I wanted to thank everyone who left a review and I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!**

* * *

twylght: THanks!

Puppens101: Duuude same. So excited for Venom's reappearance, but I also feel quite evil. Poor Peter. XD

NW nightwalker HP: No, they really can't.

cargumentluv: Aw yay! I'm so glad!

PippinStrange: Guuuuurl THANK YOU! I love hearing your favorite bits! Your reviews put the biggest smiles on MY face. So excited to be back to writing with you again!

niyah606: Two reviews! Wow! Thank you so much! "Best way to bring in the new year" Omg you are too kind. And as for Steve, well...:D

monkeybaby: Thank you!

MaddyLandin: Ahhhhhhh thank you! That made me so happy to read! I love how much you guys are into this!

Mojomonster: :D Wow. Thank you very, very much! I'm so glad that you enjoy all the povs and suspense! I promise next chapter we will get into some resolution!

Heroes21: I knooooow.

DarylDixon'sLover: THanks!

LoonyLovegood1981: Till the end of the line *SOBS* Your suspicion about Tony and Peter may or may not be correct, only time will tell. ;) I love that you fangirl over my writing and adore all of your reviews! Thank you so much!

gammathetaalpha: Thank you! IronDad is one of my favorite things!

faithandfamily1st: Thanks!

KiernanCo: Gah thank you! And uh...I guess we will find out next chapter about Steve. :D

MewWinx96: Thank you for your review! Glad you enjoyed!

Nerdalier: Lol!

Thebookworm33: Omg your review! Sorry to hear you're sick! I just got sick myself. No bueno. :/ THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR KIND WORDS! I love hearing your favorite bits and you really are too kind!

WolfsHonor: Ah thank you so much! Yes, never forget I am the Queen of Cliffhangers. I should really change my author name. lol. THis was the last one for this fic, I promise! lol! Thanks for your review!

AllShallFade777: You sound very confident about that. ;) Thank you so much!

HDDNeptuneFTW: Thanks!

gov the scoffer: Ah thank you! If I ever get a free minute, I'd love to check them out!

Nyota Scarlet Starfire: Omg thank you so much. I never realized how much I ship Wanda and Vision until I started writing them!

CinderCat: Thank you!

BeccaRave: Thanks! You as well!

Writer-at-Heart0: Thanks! I figured the Dravec wouldn't go down so easy. (Like that epic war on their home world was easy XD). And about that hint...Just maybe ;)

seireidragon: Thank you so much! I'm looking forward to everything chilling out too!

Lucyolympus17: Thanks! GLad hearing that you enjoy my work, and Pippin's as well!

Guest: Happy New Year! All the way in Indonesia! WOW! I love hearing from readers all over the world. Still blows my mind. Thank you so much, it made me so happy to hear how much you enjoy my series!

AppleSpongeCake: Good Lord. I should have expected that. Threat duly noted.

JustAFemaleGeek: EEE! THANK YOU! :D

RedHood001: Your feeling you mentioned in your review may have sparked a bit of inspiration that altered this chapter somewhat ;). Love hearing your thoughts and all the bits you liked. Thank you so so so much!

NerdyPenguin06: OMG thank you! Welcome aboard! I love getting new readers and reviewers! I'm so glad you love it, that makes me so happy to hear!

screechyfangirl: Thank you!

* * *

 **You guys really are too good to me. When I am rather cruel to you. XD**

 **COMING UP:**

 **Chapter Twenty: I was There When it Happened**

 **Did the Dravec manage to take one final victim with them? Will Steve survive, and if he does, will he be unscarred? Will the Avengers make it home? Stay tuned for the FINAL chapter of Riders in the Sky, where your questions are answered, everything is wrapped up, and there may just be a special end credits scene that I am dying for you guys to read.**

 **MUCH LOVE!**

 **~Queen**


	20. I Was There When It Happened

**CHAPTER TWENTY- I Was There When it Happened**

* * *

 **...**

 **...**

 **Peter Parker**

It's hard to breathe. It's hard to do anything but stare at the crowd of people rushing around the ship and shouting commands and calling questions.

Right now, I don't feel like an Avenger, or Spiderman. I feel terrified and small, and hyper aware of my own mortality.

Because that's freaking Captain America they are hauling up onto a table, strapping monitors to. And that steady high pitched beeping? That's the sound of his heart not beating.

"Oh my god," I whisper, hand lifting to cover my mouth where I stand, outside of it all, outside of myself.

The flashes of light, the hissed orders, the whining charge, the muffled thump, the curses and the rushing around...it's all swirling around my head, too loud, too bright, too scary. I'm already dizzy with it, sick with fear. What if Cap actually...what if he-?

My stomach lurches, heartbeat stumbling, and then my eyes latch onto a lone figure, the only other person besides me who isn't _doing_ something, who's just standing there, paralyzed. There's a twisting sensation in my chest, and I'm pushing off the wall to make my way over to him, sidling past bodies and trying to ignore that horrible, steady tone.

He's not dead. He's not dead. He's not dead.

My first instinct when I reach Bucky is to hold his hand, because that's what you do to comfort someone, to show them they're not alone. But his hand is missing, ripped off along with his arm and left on the surface of a jungle planet none of us ever want to see again. So I put my hand on his shoulder, just above the stump where his metal arm should be.

Bucky's unnaturally, horribly still. His expression is a mask, his blue eyes riveted, unblinking on the crowd surrounding Steve Rogers.

That's his best friend lying there. His best friend.

What if that was Ned?

A lump forms in my throat, my insides feeling warped and heavy as my grip on Bucky's shoulder tightens.

"He's gonna be okay, man," I say quietly, but firmly.

Bucky doesn't say anything. Just stares.

"Move!" Thor demands, nearly in a roar, and the group around Steve backs away as the god lifts a hand, blue lightning crackling between his fingers before he slams his palm upon Cap's chest.

I flinch as his whole body jerks, and so does Bucky, but then that horrendous beep skips, and begins a slow, but steady rhythm that has both of our shoulders relaxing slightly. Bucky lets out a quiet, shaky breath.

"Here!" calls Rhodes, and I see him place a crate on one of the metal counters bolted to the floor. He lifts the lid, revealing felt lined compartments filled with thick glass vials, ranging from clear to inky black, symbols etched into the surface. "These have gotta be their poisons."

"And where there are poisons," Natasha says tightly, lifting a vial to the light and frowning at it. "The antidotes are always close by."

"Yeah, but which one is it?"

Vision and Wanda are huddled in another corner, a sample of Steve's blood pressed between glass as T'Challa's ship works to analyze the compounds and chemicals within.

My heart starts beating faster, lifting with hope. "This is gonna work," I breathe.

Bucky says nothing.

"No, really, look!" I say excitedly. "Vision's getting a list of all the chemicals and compounds in his blood, and-and over there, Shuri and Mr. Stark are breaking into the Dravek database! So once they get to the files containing the lists of poisons and corresponding antitotes, Loki will translate it, they'll cross reference the information with Vision's data, and they'll know which antidote to use! This is great!"

But when I look at Bucky, he doesn't share my enthusiasm or my hope. He's still staring as Dr. Banner and Sam work to keep Cap stable.

"Hey," I shake his shoulder a little, mindful of his wounds, and my own. Finally, his eyes move to meet mine. It's an effort not to cringe at the dead look in them. "Dude, it's Captain _America_. And these are the Avengers, and we have a plan. It's gonna work."

And even though I shouldn't, and it's totally not within my power to say so, I add, "Promise."

The chaos has dissolved into tense, focused, organized...well, still chaos, but everyone has a job, and even though they're working against a clock, a plan is in place, and all they gotta do is keep working until the answer reveals itself.

"Come on," I say, and urge him forward.

Reluctantly, he follows me over to the table containing Steve's outstretched form. Sam's monitoring his vitals, and Dr. Banner is hooking up an I.V., but there's room enough for us to stay close without getting in their way.

I look at Cap and try not to show how horrified I feel. His skin is white, like _white,_ and the black veins stretching out from his stitched wound remind me of-

Nope. Not going there.

"Anything I can do, Dr. B?" I ask, barely keeping the tremor out of my voice.

He does a double take. "You could try not passing out for starters," he says with disapproval. "You should not be on your feet right now."

I really shouldn't. My head is pounding and the ship is tilting slightly beneath my feet. Not to mention, the various sores and aches are definitely making themselves known at this point. I wave him off, "Super healing, doc. I'm okay."

Bucky looks down at his friend, still hiding his expressions beneath a blank mask. I nudge him gently with my elbow. "Say something."

He shoots me a look. "He's unconscious."

"So? In the movies, they always say something when the guy is in a coma or unconscious or-" I stop myself. "And the guy always hears it, and he always comes back."

Always is a bit of an over exaggeration. But Steve might hear it, and it might help. If anything, it'll help Bucky, who I can just tell is absolutely losing it on the inside. I know I would be.

He doesn't say anything.

So I do. "Uh, hey Cap. It's me...Peter."

Wow, I feel stupid. But I see Sam give me an encouraging nod from the corner of my eye, and it's enough for me to say, "You're really freaking us out here, man. We didn't survive the nastiest aliens in the universe just to lose you now….You told us back on the ship to fight back, to survive. So fight back. We need you."

Steve's chest rises and falls, the color drained from his skin like he's never seen the sun. His eyelids don't even twitch.

"This is it," breathes Shuri. "We're in."

"Nice work, princess," Mr. Stark claps a hand on her shoulder.

"Stand aside," says Loki, eyes riveted to the screens. Clint and the other Wakandans stand half a step behind him, a steady threat.

I feel Natasha's eyes on me, but when I look up, she's examining the vials of poisons again, Rhodes and now Thor and the guy with the sword at her side. Korg sits in the back of the ship, holding Miek, and when he sees my gaze, he gives me a reassuring wave that I return. I notice Scott, knocked out with painkillers, gray bandages around his shoulders, leaning against the rocky alien, fast asleep.

"You never gave up on me."

Bucky's voice is so quiet I almost miss it. He continues. "So I'm not giving up on you. I'm with you. 'Till the end of the line."

It feels like an intensely private moment, and I can't help but feel like I'm an intruder, so I keep my gaze on the others working hurriedly, the holographic screens displaying scrolling data and foreign symbols at breakneck speeds, their glaring lights piercing through my eyes to add fuel to my headache.

Sam sees something on the monitors that has the muscles in his back going rigid. "Where we at on that antidote?" he calls tightly.

"Patience," Loki murmurs distractedly as his eyes flit back and forth across the Dravec writing. "Is always justly rewarded."

Sam bristles. "Say that again," he says in a low voice. "Tell me to be patient again while my friend lies dying at my back."

Loki half turns over his shoulder, his eyes innocent but an almost smile playing at the corner of his mouth. "You wouldn't want me rushing to translate and selecting the wrong antidote, would you?"

"Loki," warns Thor as Rhodes says, "I would not be making threats if I were in your shoes."

"Threats? Hardly. If your precious captain dies, it will be no fault of mine, I assure you. It is not my incompetence that placed him on that table."

Bucky tenses beside me and takes one menacing step towards the Asgardian, who notices the Winter Soldier's attention and stiffens ever so slightly.

Before it can escalate further, Mr. Stark puts a hand on Loki's shoulder. "Hey. Eyes up front or I'm taking twenty points from Slytherin."

There's not even a trace of humor in his steely voice, and I see his fingers dig in with warning.

"I've finished analyzing the blood sample," Vision announces, half turning to face the others, Wanda's eyes lifting with hope. "Sending the results to you now."

"See?" I say lightly. "We got this."

Then, miracle of miracles, Steve begins to stir, his brow furrowing as his chapped lips frown. Dr. Banner is on him in an instant, a hand on his chest. "Steve? Buddy?"

His eyes flutter open, his gaze glassy and feverish as they look around. Dr. Banner leans in. "We're right here, Cap. You're in good hands."

Steve gives him the barest hint of a smile, then notices Bucky on his other side. His lips part to speak, and goosebumps erupt with warning all along my skin. Cap's throat goes tight a second later, tendons rising as he inhales raggedly and coughs. Bright red blood sprays across his lips, his chin, a few drops hitting his chest.

Dr. Banner curses violently, and then that steady beeping turns rapid and high pitched. Sam calls out statistics that I don't hear, as both men start moving, as Mr. Stark and Natasha rush back towards us. Steve's coughing still, his back arching slightly as he tries to get in breath, as more blood and spit spray the air.

I put a hand to Bucky's arm, pulling him away a few steps as the others converge, as T'Challa leaves Okoye and Clint to guard Loki and Shuri, and calls out orders to the ship itself, machines whirring to life.

The blood drains from my face, and I can't make sense of any of it.

Bucky's staring again, and this time, I don't have the words to offer him any more assurances or promises. They get stuck in my throat, by a barricade of my own swollen panic. And despite myself, I keep thinking, what if Captain America doesn't make it? What if I watch him die, after finally getting off that nightmare of a planet, after finally being safe again?

My hands curl into fists, and beside me, Bucky's does the same.

I hear snippets of frantic words. Terrifying ones, like "his organs are shutting down" and "It's spreading too quickly" and "We need that antidote, goddamn it! Now!"

I want to slap my hands over my ears, want to shut it all out and close my eyes, and just as my fingers twitch, I hear a different voice calling over all the others in a steady, unhurried tone. "There."

Multiple sets of eyes look up, my own included, to the line of Dravec symbols Loki is pointing at, his expression victorious and smug. "There is your antidote."

* * *

 **Wanda Maximoff**

Eight hours.

Eight hours since the antidote was administered. Eight hours since Steve Rogers underwent extensive surgery to stop the internal bleeding and reverse the damage done by the Dravec poison. It wouldn't have been possible on one of our quinjets, even with the impressive amount of technology Tony Stark has in his possession.

The delicate instruments, the machines that whirled to life in near silence, hovering and steady and creating a sterile environment in such an enclosed space...the surety on the young Wakandan princess's face as she and Dr. Banner oversaw the procedures and administration of the antidote, Sam close on hand to assist them..

It's all a blur. And yet it was probably the longest eight hours of our lives.

By some cosmic miracle, all their efforts paid off. Steve Rogers lives, and is expected to make a full recovery.

Now there's just one order of business to attend to before we make the trek home.

Steve sleeps, a steady stream of medicine slipping into his veins through an I.V., a mask over his face to ensure he gets enough oxygen. His wounds have been cleaned and dressed, and he's been made as comfortable as possible. Barnes, dressed in fresh clothes, his own wounds take care of, keeps a steady guard at his side, refusing to move away for anything.

The rest of us stand together at the front of the ship, before the long, curving windows set above the controls. It's silent, the air taking on a solemn weight as we all stare across the vast, dark reaches of space to the large Dravec craft in the distance. The ship is an ominous creature still, even knowing no Dravec have been left alive. It seems to watch us, quietly seething, resenting us for our survival and retaliation.

I hate it. Hate it with every piece of my heart. And for not the first time, I wish that my powers were not so depleted from the battle so that I could tear that ship apart myself.

Vision squeezes my hand, pulls me close as if to comfort. Instead, it reminds me that those monsters nearly took him from me. Nearly took all of us. My eyes begin to burn, and I know the faintest sheen of red taints my irises.

"Prepare the cannons," T'Challa commands Okoye steely, and hard faced, the general obeys.

The whole ship shudders as massive weapons on the outside of the ship begin to shift into place, locking onto the Dravec craft in the distance.

"I feel like someone should say something," murmurs Scott. "I swear I had something for this."

Natasha raises a brow. "You had something for blowing up a hostile alien ship after they kidnapped us and tried to wipe us all out?"

"Yeah, I did. It was really good, too….nope, lost it."

"I have something," Tony says, standing, of course, in the center of our battered group. We glance at him, then move our gazes to the Dravec ship. "Yipee-ki-yay-motherfuckers."

Okoye's look is savage as she activates the weaponry, and then twin blasts of pale light surge out from the Wakandan cannons, spearing silently through the black night sky as Peter looks up at his mentor with a grin and mutters, "Sure, _you_ get to say it."

A beat of silence, and then the ship explodes, shattering into three massive pieces as metal chunks go flying into the stars, glittering like glass, all the while bursts of orange and red light billow out in all directions, so bright we can barely stand to look. But even though it burns our eyes, none of us glance away as the Dravec ship is destroyed, as the remains of their horrific civilization are obliterated into nothing. Many smaller explosions follow, eerily silent, like some perverse, solemn fireworks display.

The Dravec are gone.

And we are going home.

* * *

 **Peter Parker**

The descent into Earth's atmosphere and flight to the Avengers compound seem to take a thousand years. Sore, restless, and incredibly homesick, I'm bouncing on my feet by the time T'Challa's ship touches the ground. I imagine falling face first onto the lawn outside the facility and breathing in the smell of grass and hugging my planet that I never, _ever_ want to leave again.

My injuries are on the mend enough that I actually consider it, dignity or no.

As the ramp lowers into the compound's hangar, Steve is wheeled out first on a stretcher, still unconscious, but recovering. Bucky, Natasha, Dr. Banner, Sam, and the Wakandans form a tight entourage around the Captain as they move him quickly and purposefully to the medical wing.

I bolt down the ramp next, vibrating in my skin and feeling like I might actually explode. I want to get outside, I want to-

I stop short.

Aunt May is standing some distance away. Her face is drawn and pale, and I can see the glitter of tears in her eyes behind her glasses as her lips curve into a wobbly smile. My throat swells into a tight knot, and I feel my own eyes start to burn as I rush towards her.

I hug her tight, burying my face in her shoulder as her arms curl around me just as fiercely, her lips pressing a hundred kisses into the top of my head.

This...this is home. I'm _home._

The muscles in my throat tighten painfully as I stifle the part of me that wants to break down, fall to my knees, and weep. All the terror and trauma of the past...I don't even know how long, hits me in a brutal rush, and it takes all my effort to shove it away and just relish the fact that I'm safe and alive.

I pull back, giving her a tremulous smile as her thumb brushes away the tear that slides down my cheek.

"I thought I told you to be safe," May says through her tears.

I let out a little laugh. "Didn't exactly turn out like I thought it would….is there any of that meatloaf left?"

It's May's turn to laugh. "That meatloaf went bad already, but you can bet your ass I'll make you as much as your stomach can handle, mister."

My stomach rumbles in response. "It can handle a lot, trust me."

That's when I notice the cupcake in one of her hands, a candle poking out of the mountain of chocolate frosting. The wick is black, like it had just been lit and blown out. My brows knit together in confusion, and I look back up at May.

"Your damn plane blew it out," she huffs, then holds it out to me. "Happy Birthday, Peter."

I gape at it, then her. That can't be right. My birthday's not for another...god, I don't even know what day it is. "That's...I'm...it's my birthday?"

May does a good job of hiding it, but I see that flicker of haunted agony in her eyes before she covers it with wry humor. "Three days ago. Your friends wouldn't stop calling."

My stomach clenches at that, and I take the cupcake from her slightly shaking hand. Three days ago I was fighting for my life on an alien battlefield with the Avengers against the Dravec soldiers. It's a bizarre feeling, knowing that I missed my birthday, that I spent it trying not to die. That I'm sixteen.

"Thank you," I tell her earnestly.

"I thought we'd save your presents for when I can take you home. We can go out for thai, invite your friends, get a real cake afterwards? What do you think?"

"I think...nothing has ever sounded better."

"Here," May hands me my phone. "If you don't call Ned, the poor kid might actually explode. I nearly had to ask Happy to tranq him to stop him from following me to the compound."

"Happy said no?"

"Happy didn't have tranquilizer darts on him at the time," May says wryly. "Come on, kiddo, let's get you inside. I was told you have to be cleared by the medical personnel before you do anything else. They'll also probably want to keep you here a day or two to make sure you didn't pick up any alien viruses or parasites or-"

She cuts herself off abruptly, going pale and looking sick. "Oh, honey, I didn't mean-"

"It's ok," I assure her quickly. "No parasites this time. I'm parasite free."

My smile is a hair too tight, but then again, so is hers. The Venom debacle is just a bit too fresh in our memories to joke about alien parasites. I have to fight the urge to pull up the security footage of the Wakandan vault Bucky and T'Challa installed on my phone after Christmas.

May pats my cheek affectionately and pulls me along after the others to the medical wing. "Alright mister, remember our deal when it comes to mission homecomings?"

"Technically this wasn't a mission."

The look on her face has me amending, "Uh I remember. No lying, no leaving anything out-"

"No bullshit," we say together.

"Alright then," May says. "Spill."

Korg makes his way off the ramp, Miek in his arms, and May stops short at the sight of the massive rock alien and the bug like creature cradled against his chest.

"Hi there," says Korg cheerily. "'Name's Korg."

"Um. May Parker," May says automatically, starting up at him.

"Oh, are you debriefing? Need a hand?" Korg asks me.

"Nope!" I pull May away by the shoulders, quickly steering her by the shoulders to the open double doors into the compound. "All good here! I got it!"

"Nice to meet you!" calls Korg pleasantly. "Oh, New Miek! Don't forget to tell her about how I saved you from being strangled by that Dravec leader who nearly branded you! You were in real peril there for a moment!"

May stiffens in my grasp.

Goddamn it.

* * *

" _You fought with THOR?!"_

"Yep."

" _THE Thor?"_

"Do we know another Thor?"

" _You rode alien dinosaurs into battle with Thor and the Hulk and...and EVERYONE. DUDE. I...I can't even right now. I'm losing my mind."_

"You and me both."

" _You realize you're going to have to tell me everything, right? And I mean EVERYTHING. Every fantastic, horrible, nerd-gushing detail. WAIT. Did your mask record it? Can I see what happened?"_

"Ahhh that would be a no on the video montage. Karen was offline the whole time."

" _Damn. I still can't believe what happened. It's like a mix of every sci fi and fantasy movie we've ever watched! Being hunted in the jungle, alien predators, dinosaurs, traps, sword wielding badasses and space! The only thing missing is rescuing a princess."_

"Well...actually…?"

" _SHUT UP."_

"She sort of saved me first," I admit. "Shuri is King T'Challa's sister. The alien ship she commandeered was sort of under attack and going down, so Hulk threw me and-"

Ned lets out a wistful sigh. " _Peter. Your life. I like, need it to be mine, but am also totally fine with living vicariously through you so I don't have to get so close to, you know, dying and stuff."_

I laugh.

" _Ok, so I'm coming over Saturday to celebrate your birthday. Total mission debrief then?"_

His tone is excited, but I can hear the slight hopeful, uncertain note in it. Because the last time something as big as this happened, I'd kept him out of it and lied to his face. "Yeah, of course. As long as my present is something awesome."

" _When do I ever not get you something awesome?"_

"Last year you gave me a gift card to Toys R Us."

" _It was for your inner child."_

"Toys R Us died, dude."

" _So it might have been an old gift card from my great aunt. Last year really wasn't a good time for me. But, good news, I heard Toys R Us is making a come back. You're welcome."_

"Sure, sure," I roll my eyes with a grin, flopping down on the pillows of my bed at the Avengers facility.

Ned and I have been talking on the phone for nearly an hour now. May had given me some privacy, saying something about finding Happy to get some coffee. I'd frowned at that, knowing she knew exactly where the coffee station was already, but then Ned was screaming in my ear from the phone, and my attention had quickly been diverted.

" _You're okay, right? Like...okay, okay?"_

"Yeah, man. I'm pretty much all healed already," I assure him. It's not a lie. I'd been cleared by the medical staff and given salves and creams to minimize the scarring. Now it's just waiting for my bruises to fade, which should be another day or two. A few days of good food and sleep and sunshine, they said, and I'd be right as rain.

" _Yeah, but...like, are YOU okay?"_

I think about that. "Right now...I'm...I'm mostly tired and sore and happy to be home. But...I'm not gonna lie, Ned. It was really scary. Fighting with the Avengers in space was cool and all, but I was mostly just trying to stay alive, and there were...a few close calls."

" _Like...how close are we talking?"_

A burning whip cinching around my neck, a wrist blade driving for my throat, plasma blasts ripping through the jungle, a weight at my back as I fall down, down, down-

I swallow. "Close. Cap...Cap almost died."

" _Holy shit,"_ Ned breathes. " _Peter, that's...woah."_

"I know. So, I'm okay, but...I don't know how it's gonna hit me yet, you know?"

" _Well, however it does, whenever it does. I'm here."_

"Thanks, Samwise."

" _Anything for you, Mr. Frodo….Oh. Also...um...So I think...I think MJ maybe doesn't buy the whole 'sick with the flu' thing. Or were we going with mono?"_

I sit up in bed. "Why do you think she doesn't buy it?"

" _Oh, you know, just...Okay so she totally pinned me up against the lockers and interrogated me and I swear I didn't crack or anything but there was a lot of sweat and raising of eyebrows and she just has that tone, you know? And dude. I support your relationship and all, but Michelle is TERRIFYING. I was actually frightened for my life."_

"Ned, BREATHE."

" _Sorry,"_ Ned heaves a sigh. " _It's been super stressful without you here."_

"I'm sorry," I say sincerely. "I don't mean to keep doing that to you."

He laughs. " _Yeah, I know. And I'm pretty sure your stress levels were higher than mine. Anyways. If I were you, I'd call MJ. Like, soon. And you better be convincing, because I am not going down with THAT ship."_

I scrub my face with my hand, hating the feeling of my insides curling into anxious knots. "I'll do my best."

" _Cool. I'll let you get to it. See you Saturday?"_

"See you Saturday."

I hang up the phone and thumb over to the text messages. There were a LOT of missed calls and texts from Michelle, each one becoming increasingly short and ominous. Ned didn't even have to tell me that MJ wasn't happy for me to know it.

Blowing out a breath, I close my eyes and try not to grip the phone too tightly. I can't even relish the feeling of being freshly showered, stuffed with food, and laying on a mass of pillows in an air conditioned bedroom.

What am I going to say to her? Oh, hey, MJ! Yeah I've missed all this school because of this insane flu. Because being home sick means I have virtually no access to my phone. Totally valid excuse.

"Ughhh," I groan, rolling over onto my stomach to smother my face in my pillow.

MJ is not an idiot. She's the smartest girl I know, and her texts and interrogation of my best friend made it pretty clear that she isn't fooled by the excuse, even if we did come up with the whole, 'it was actually mono' thing. Which, gross. Not exactly something I want her thinking I had, even if people get it all the time just from drinking out of the water fountain at school.

No, MJ isn't going to buy it.

So what, then? What's left other than the truth?

I could...I could tell her I'm Spiderman.

The thought sends my heart galloping into overdrive. And why not? I'd thought about telling Liz, hadn't I? And she'd just been a crush from a distance. MJ...MJ is sort of my girlfriend, I think, though I haven't officially asked her yet. I'd come close a few times, but talked myself out of it, worried how she would feel about labels.

But anyways, I feel a lot more for Michelle than I did for Liz. I know MJ. I mean, I'm starting to. I know how passionate she feels about important topics like inequality and sexism and corruption in society. I know she's really good at drawing, and sometimes uses this skill to make political cartoons that are as impactful as they are well drawn. (I keep trying to get her to submit them to the school newsletter, but she just rolls her eyes and says she's waiting for a more substantial platform than 'Midtown Tech Weekly'.)

She has a wicked sense of humor, to the point where half the time I don't even know if she's joking or not. She's pretty and cares about people and-

And I should tell her. MJ is one of my best friends now, more than that, and I should trust her with this.

The pillow is becoming stifling, and it's starting to smell like my lunch, so I roll back over onto my back and look at MJ's contact picture. Her expression is unimpressed, her chin resting on her hand as she stares off in the distance. I'd taken it when she wasn't paying attention, and MJ's response was to raise an eyebrow at me and ask if I had permission to take her picture without her consent and if I wanted to be sued for violating her fundamental rights for privacy.

I'd stared at her wordlessly before she rolled her eyes and laughed at me.

The truth would be so much easier than continuing to lie to her, especially with her not believing it anyways. But...but what if I tell her, and she freaks out? What if she doesn't want to be dating Spiderman? Or…or what if something happens to her? What if this ridiculous trend of mine for getting in over my head overlaps into Peter Parker's life and puts her in danger for being close to me?

Well, I think, that's going to happen whether she's aware of it or not, isn't it? But if she knows the truth, then she can be better prepared. She could decide if that's a risk she wants to take or not.

And I'm doing a disservice to her by taking that choice away from her, a subject I KNOW she'd have a lot of furious words on.

So there's really nothing left to think about. I have to tell her the truth, and hope that I'm worth all the trouble.

My thumb hovers above the green phone icon next to her picture. It's trembling.

I drop the phone to my chest and press my palms into my eyes with a groan. How the hell am I going to tell her? Over the phone so she can't pummel me for lying, and I don't have to see the look on her face? Is that as crappy as breaking up with someone over the phone?

Oh god, is she going to break up with me over the phone?

There's a sharp rap on my door.

I jump out of my skin, finding my heart somewhere in my throat and my body in a defensive crouch on the bed, the webshooters I'd strapped to my wrists now aimed at the partially opened doorway, where Mr. Stark's head is now poking through.

"Easy, Nick Grindell. This town is in fact big enough for the both of us."

I frown. "Isn't that from Toy Story?"

"The Western Code. 1932. Uncultured swine," Mr. Stark enters the room and leans against the now closed door. "At ease, soldier."

I do a good job of relaxing my stance and plopping back down onto the bed, full of teenage nonchalance.

"That bad, huh?" asks Mr. Stark sympathetically.

Damn. Guess I wasn't as convincing as I thought. I sigh. "Remember when you told the world you were Ironman at a press conference?"

"Vaguely."

"What made you think it was a good idea? I mean...why did you do it?"

"To be honest, there wasn't a lot of thought involved. It was a spur of the moment decision."

"What? You? Spur of the moment?"

"Shocking, I know. I may be the world's best mentor now, kid, but I, too, was once a reckless youth like you."

I snort, and Mr. Stark comes to sit beside me on the bed. He looks me over. "What's on your mind? Thinking of putting together a press conference of your own?"

"God no. Just...okay. So, lying to May...to Ned...it was really hard and it sucked, and it ended up being a mistake."

"I remember."

"I'm worried I'm still making a mistake by not telling my...friend."

"Your totally platonic friend Michelle Jones that you didn't kiss for the first time on New Year's Eve?"

I look at him sharply. "What? How-"

He waves me off. "Happy and I talk, you know. Not as much as he and your attractive aunt talk, but still."

I frown at that, but shake my head and demand indignantly, "How the hell does Happy know I kissed MJ on New Year's?"

"If you want your first kiss to be a private moment, maybe don't do it out on the porch."

"Why was he even there in the first place? May was the one who took me to that party?"

"Just checking in. The holidays were a little rough for you last year, in case you forgot. And you're getting off topic. So you want to tell your girlfriend about your late night Underoo adventures."

"Well...yeah. I think...I think she deserves to know. And I don't want to keep lying to her."

Mr. Stark's expression goes serious. "You sure she's someone you can trust?"

"Yes. Absolutely."

"I'm not going to tell you whether or not you can reveal your identity to your friend. That's not up to me, and it's not my secret. Clearly I'm not one to advise playing things close to the vest. That would be more Clint or Natasha's area of expertise. But I will say this," Mr. Stark meets my eyes. "Be careful, kid, and be sure. That's not something you can take back. Especially with you wanting to keep your identity a secret."

The decision weighs heavily in my gut. "Yeah."

"Take some time to think about it. And while you're doing that, there's something else I want you to think about."

I eye him warily. "What's that?"

"I think it would be a good idea for you to spend your weekends, or at least part of them, here at the compound. For various reasons, one of which I still have to talk to Cap about when he decides to open those dreamy eyes of his. Anyways, I want you to think about meeting with Sam."

"Sam? For what?"

"He used to run group sessions for war veterans suffering PTSD. I know what you're thinking," Mr. Stark raises a hand and rushes on. "And I'd probably hesitate if I were in your shoes too, but-"

"I'll do it."

"Come again?"

"I'll do it," I shrug. "He's offered before, I've just never taken him up on it. After everything that happened up there with the Dravec...and down here, with Venom and Hydra, I think...I think it might be good to talk to him. Make sure it all doesn't hit me at once so I crack again in the middle of my P.E. final."

"That was...easier than I thought it would be. Where's the teenage resistance against authority and all things related to seeing a shrink?"

"Pretty sure it got left in the jungle," I say with a wry smile that apparently doesn't quite hide the haunted tone of my voice.

Mr. Stark puts an arm around my shoulders. "I'm proud of you, you know. You handled yourself like an Avenger up there."

My spine goes straight at the praise, despite my skin shuddering at the too recent memories. "I didn't... _feel_ like an Avenger. I felt...it was really scary. Not an experience I'd ever care to repeat. Being hunted like an animal...man, Mr. Stark, I'll tell you, I'll never be able to watch the Discovery channel again."

"I'll let you in on a little secret. Being an Avenger isn't something you feel. It's something you do. God, I'm starting to sound like the dear old Captain, aren't I?"

I grin. "A bit. Is he doing okay?"

"Super healing is kicking in nicely. He'll be fine. Between you and me, I think he just wasn't getting enough attention."

I laugh as Mr. Stark gets to his feet, and the older man ruffles my hair.

"Enjoy your homecoming, kid."

"Thanks, Mr. Stark," I say when he reaches the door. "For coming to get me. Again."

He takes a steady breath and gives me a small smile. "Always."

* * *

 **Tony Stark**

"And they say I'm the dramatic one."

Steve's eyes crack open, a glint of blue. I sit back in my chair, arms crossed, my body poised in artificial ease as he takes a deep breath and looks around the room, taking in the white sheets, the overly sterile smell, the monitors and IVs stationed at his bedside.

"You are the dramatic one," Steve counters, voice heavy with sleep.

"Whose heart stopped and induced a full fledged, panic filled medical drama on board King T'Challa's ship in the deep reaches of space?" I point out. "Grey's Anatomy couldn't have come up with something more far fetched."

"I...don't remember any of that."

"I'd be worried if you did."

"You found an antidote?"

"Me? I'm flattered, but no. Your subsequent revival and recovery are in fact due to a combined effort of Asgardian, Wakandan, and...whatever the hell Bruce is. You'll be ever so pleased to hear that if it wasn't for Loki of Asgard, you'd be deader than a doornail."

I say it lightly, like it wasn't one of the scariest moments in my life. Like my own heart hadn't stopped at the sight of my friend, pale and lifeless on the floor.

Steve winces. "Great. A life debt to that madman is exactly what I need."

"To be fair, he murdered a lot of our people the last time his pointy boots were on Earth. Even saving Captain America doesn't balance _that_ out."

"True." He glances around again. "So we are back on Earth, then?"

"You missed the delightful trip home, I'm afraid," I say tapping my fingers on the arm of the chair.

"Do I even want to know?"

I think about the chaos that had erupted when Steve Rogers had stopped breathing. The rush of tests and translating and defibrillating and magic and science. The horrifying moment when we thought it was too late, when Peter Parker had gripped my arm so tight it had left bruises, his horrified eyes on Cap's too still body. The melting relief when his chest started rising, when those horrific black lines started to fade.

Then there was travelling back to Earth, a ship meant for at most twelve carrying twenty. Most injured, all exhausted, and tensions unbearably high from such an ordeal. And of course, the close proximity to a god that had tried to murder half of us not that long ago.

"No. Although you would have liked seeing the Dravec ship being blown to hell."

Steve's eyes sharpen. "You destroyed it?"

"Technically T'Challa did. He and Thor had apparently placed Dravec explosives in strategic spots while they were over there, and one blast from the guns on his highness's ship set them all off in a rather spectacular fashion. Better than the fourth of July."

"I've always liked fireworks," Steve says with a grim smile.

"Patriotic through and through, aren't you?"

"Thank you, Tony," Steve says in all seriousness, the air growing heavy between us.

I go to wave him off. "Who says I was there to save you? I wanted my intern back."

Steve's not having it. "If it wasn't for you, for all of you, we wouldn't have made it. I...I wouldn't have been able to keep them safe. Or bring them home."

I can see how much he hates that, how much it weighs on him. All of the responsibility for those lives on his shoulders, right where he put them. "You would have found a way," I say firmly. "You always do."

"It was a close thing," he breathes out, his eyes taking on a haunted quality that I've seen before.

"It was," I agree. "Too close. I think we need to start training the fresh blood. Start honing the skills they already got."

Steve's eyes lighten with focus. "That's not a bad idea. Team training would make a world of difference too. It's been too long since we've all fought side by side. Together."

"We're a little out of practice, I'll give you that. But we still won, in the end."

"What if we don't, next time? What if there's no miracle last minute save? We need to be stronger as a unit for when the next big thing comes."

A chill skitters down my spine. The next big thing. I can't even argue or tell Steve that he's exaggerating or being an old worry wart. Because the next big thing always comes, and it always gets bigger. "I know."

We sit in silence for several moments each lost in our own thoughts. My fingers tire of drumming on the arm of the metal chair I've been residing in, and so I shift in my seat, leaning forward to rest my forearms on my knees. "Are you gonna be ok?" I ask abruptly.

He stares at me, brows furrowing. "As...far as I know? I feel like that's more of a question for Helen or Bruce than me. I've been unconscious for days."

"No," I wave him off. "Physically you'll be fine. Fit as a fiddle and all that. I mean...I mean you guys were abducted and hunted like animals for weeks. That has to leave some kind of mark. So I'm asking. Are you gonna be ok?"

There's that haunted look again. The same one that used to come up whenever Bucky was brought up, before he got Hydra removed from his head. Steve says slowly. "This isn't about me, is it?"

I meet his eyes. "It is. And it isn't."

Steve nods. "Look, I'm not going to lie and say that what happened with the Dravec isn't going to leave a mark. It will. It has. But I don't think it's something that any of us can't come back from. It might just take time...and some help."

I heave a breath, staring at the wall like it will have some answers. We did what we set out to do. We got our people back, and everyone managed to survive, which was more than we could have hoped for. But I'm still worried as hell about them. As Avengers, we go through nightmares and hell itself so that other people don't have to. I know better than most what that's like. And what the effects can be.

"Have you talked to him?"

I glance at Steve. "A little. Seems a little more on edge than normal, but ok. I still asked him to start talking to Sam regularly. Kid's not going to do himself a favor by shoving all that PTSD down to explode later."

Steve's eyes are unbearably understanding. "Yeah, no kidding. I don't think any of us should be on our own right now."

"I'm pretty sure that buddy of yours hasn't let the kid out of his sight since we've gone back."

He doesn't look surprised. "Bucky has a tendency to take responsibility for gangly things that like to get themselves into trouble. I would know. Does it bother you?"

"It would have, a long time ago," I admit. "Now? After all that we've been through, I think Peter could use as many people looking out for him as he can get. Kid's a magnet for trouble."

"That he is. How is Bucky? And...didn't I hear Scott dying on the ship?"

I snort. "Scott Lang lives. And won't stop bragging about his epic battle with the Dravec Queen, I might add. Barnes is fine, too. Being outfitted with a fancy new vibranium arm, courtesy of his highness. Let's see, who else? Vision's getting some cradle time for the wound on his chest, the princess and general are staying a few more days to oversee the Dravec tech's transfer to Wakanda, the aliens are recovering before taking T'Challa's ship back into space to rejoin the others. And everyone is making a full recovery. Even you, though you tried your hardest to bow out early."

"What are we going to do about Loki?" Steve asks, all amusement gone from his voice.

I rub a hand over my jaw. "That is an ongoing argument that has yet to resolve itself. Thor insists on vouching for the bastard, though I can't fathom why, and the case could be made that without him, we would have had more casualties, you and Wanda included."

"That doesn't negate what he's done."

"I'm not saying it does. Nor do I think the short amount of prison time on Asgard is sufficient for the likes of him. However," I say with a sigh. "I don't know that it's our call to make."

"You seemed to think a lot differently back on the Dravec home world."

"Let me put it this way. If Thor were to hand him over to us for justice, what then? What kind of trial can we put a god on? What prison can hold him for long? Aren't we all better off with him as far away from Earth as Thor can take him?"

Steve's gaze is even. "So you're saying we let him go. That we take the easy way out."

"No. Christ," I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Don't do that."

"Do what? Say it like it is? Don't you want justice? Isn't that what we fight for?"

"I want a break," I say abruptly, leaning back in my chair and looking at him frankly. "Chitauri, Ultron, Hydra, Venom, Dravec, all the other guys in between. I'm tired. I am wrung out. I think we all are. So we let one go and hope for the best. Considering he saved your life, I'm inclined to let him be Thor's problem."

His jaw sets, and he looks away.

I look away too, feeling the weariness settle over me. "I want to get married. I want to go a month without some big evil hanging over our heads, or a few weeks without worrying about that kid getting himself in over his head. I want some goddamn normalcy. And you know what I really want? An authentic philly cheesesteak sandwich."

Steve snorts, then sighs. "I'd kill for a cheeseburger."

"I'll get Happy on it. Least I can do," I rise, putting my hands in my pocket. "I'll let Barnes know you're awake."

"Thanks, Tony."

"You just worry about recovering, yeah? We'll handle the rest."

* * *

When I get to my office, she's there, leaning against the desk, arms folded across her chest.

"Security," I say lightly. "There's a stalker in my office."

"Haha."

Pepper strides over to me, grabs a fistfull of my shirt and pulls me down for a kiss. I savor the feel of her lips on mine, letting my eyes fall shut as I sink into the sensation. Then she pulls away abruptly and punches me in the chest.

"Ow. That was totally unnecessary."

" _Unnecessary?"_ Her tone turns sharp and incredulous. "You're joking, right?"

"Well-"

"You went into _space."_

"Wouldn't be the first time."

"New York gets invaded by aliens uglier than the Chitauri, and then you went _after_ them into _space."_

"Invaded might be a strong word. They were only here for-"

"Spare me, please. I'm going to have to get a child leash just to keep you from going off planet for five minutes."

"Bondage, huh? Sounds a little extreme."

"Tony-"

"I had to go, Pep. They took my things. I don't like it when people take my things. What were you going to do? Say no?"

"Maybe," she says, eyes flinty. "I'm sure the others would have done just fine without you."

"Ouch."

Pepper kisses me again, and I brace myself for another punch, which quickly follows. "I was worried."

My eyes soften, and my hands move to her waist, pulling her against me. "I know. I'm sorry."

"You owe me big. I was half convinced you orchestrated this whole thing to get out of planning our wedding."

"I would never...but you finished the wedding planning, yeah?"

She rolls her eyes, but can't help a smile. That's my favorite thing, when she's exasperated and annoyed with me, but I can still draw out the curve of her lips. "Still plenty for you to do, don't you worry."

"Isn't the groom supposed to just show up?"

"Not in this wedding. You have to do at least twelve percent of the work."

This time I'm the one who's smiling. "Twelve percent huh? What do you say we go on a vacation?"

"Tony, we can't skip town this close to the wedding. There's way too much to plan and figure out, and then there's the company and the-"

"Let's elope. Get married on the beach in Fiji."

"I have not put in this much work to throw it all away and get married in Fiji with Avneet as our minister."

"I thought you liked Avneet."

"I might like him more than I like you right now."

"Think about it. We could put all the work you've already done into a wedding for Bruce and Natasha, and then go disappear on a tropical island that we could have all to ourselves. Tell me that doesn't sound appealing."

Pepper rolls her eyes again, wrapping her arms around my neck and moving closer. "Hey, I gave you that opportunity months ago. It's your own fault we're doing the big white New York wedding."

"Ah, so much regret."

She looks at me. Really looks at me. "Tell me you're okay."

I sober up a little. "Never better."

At her expression, I amend, "Okay, I've been better. But I'm alright, now that everyone's back and that murderous alien species is wiped out. And now that I'm with you."

"I hate space. It keeps trying to take you away from me. No more, got it? Don't do that again," she orders, fingers winding in the belt loops of my pants.

"Yes, Mrs. Stark."

"Uh-uh. You don't get to call me that until we leave that altar, pal. It's still Miss Potts to you."

"Yes, Miss Potts."

I kiss her, taking her in my arms and breathing in her scent, relishing the feeling of home.

* * *

 **Bucky Barnes**

I jerk awake, a denial on my lips, but I swallow it back to take a few heavy breaths and wipe the sweat from my brow. Nausea roils in my stomach, leftover vestiges of panic still clinging to my racing heart as the images repeat in my mind's eye with every beat.

Steve on the floor of the ship. Pale, unmoving. Gone. The panic that had ensued, the rush to save him as I'd stood there, staring and helpless, my single hand curled into a fist. Was this how he had felt when he saw me fall from that train so many years ago? Unable to do anything but watch?

I sit up in bed, flexing the metal fingers of my newly installed arm, connected to me so thoroughly, I swear I can almost feel nerves in the vibranium fingertips. The sensation of having the older version ripped from my shoulder still sends phantom pains along my left side.

Every night I dream of the Dravec. I dream of Steve, dead on the ship, poisoned and still. I dream of a knife plunging into my side, of feverish stumblings through a sweltering jungle. I dream of Peter Parker, determinedly bolting from the cave for my sake, to pay back a debt he hadn't needed to, of the massive Dravec hunter holding him by his throat, seconds away from slaughtering him in front of me.

I dream of being hunted. Of being the hunter. Sometimes, it's me stalking through the jungle as a pale faced, gangly teenager sprints for his life away from me.

But they're just dreams, I remind myself. I am no stranger to nightmares. What's a few more.

We're all alive. Recovering. Safe. For now.

Still, it takes a few breaths for my heartbeat to slip back into its normal pace, and by then, there's no going back to sleep. I change into jeans and a t-shirt and make my way through the compound, the night sky still darkening the halls and casting them in eerie darkness. Blues and grays and blacks.

Anything but red.

My eyes are already adjusted, the air from the A.C. vents above cooling the sweat lingering on my skin, so very different from the damp, oppressive heat of the jungle.

I think about stopping by Steve's room to check on him, but decide against it. I don't want to wake him and disturb the rest he so desperately needs to recover. So I walk the cool, dark halls of the Avengers facility, trying to pretend that I belong here. Trying to pretend that I'm not making sure there are no threats. Trying to pretend that I don't feel on edge, like enemies could be lurking at every corner.

Just a walk, I tell myself. That's all.

I reach the entry hall, the entire wall made of windows bared to the night sky, moonlight filtering through and casting everything into hazy blues. Movement has my muscles tensing, my eyes narrowing as my heart leaps into action, preparing for the rush of adrenaline that's sure to follow.

But it's one of us that's sitting there on the ottoman, not a Dravec hunter.

Still, I'm surprised. Of all the people I might have run into tonight, I didn't expect this. I consider moving on, continuing my rounds through the facility. Instead, my feet carry me to the bench beside him, and I ease myself down to stare out into the night.

"How's the arm?"

"It's good," I say after a moment, looking down at the gleaming vibranium to flex my fingers. "Still takes some getting used to, whenever I get a new one."

Tony Stark shoots me a look. "Let's have it be awhile until the next time you need a new arm, yeah?"

"That's the plan."

I swear I can almost hear the crickets through the thick glass of the windows, the trees beyond it swaying gently in the wind.

"From all the accounts I heard," Stark says slowly. "I gathered that Peter's survival depended heavily upon you. Am I right?"

I hesitate. "It was a mutual endeavor. I probably wouldn't have made it myself if he hadn't led the Dravec away that night."

"I thought I told you that I was tired of thanking you," he says lightly, but I hear the authentic note in his voice anyways. "I'd say stop it, but then I wouldn't have an intern right now. Clearly his well being is not something I can't handle on my own."

I snort. "Peter's a full time job. No one could do that on their own." After a moment, I say, "He reminds me of Steve. How he used to be."

"Gangly and stubborn?"

"That," I say. "And with the inability to stay inactive when someone's in trouble. Even when it was a bad idea, Steve couldn't help himself. Always had to charge into the fray anyways. Can't tell you how many times I had to save him from getting his ass kicked by a dumpster."

Stark heaves a sigh. "Sounds about right. Guess that makes us on the same team, doesn't it?"

"What team would that be?"

"The keep noble idiots from getting themselves killed team. I should make t-shirts."

I smirk at that, then another thought comes to me. "I heard there was a bet. Back on the Dravec's home world."

"Oh," Stark waves it off. "That. That wasn't important."

I raise a brow. "Meaning you lost?"

Silence.

"Maybe."

"Who won? Who killed the most Dravec? I'll admit I never kept count. Too busy trying to keep your moron kid alive."

Stark lets out a short laugh. "Fair. The winner of that particular bet would be Okoye of Wakanda. Her vendetta was slightly more personal, and the Dravec certainly paid for it."

I'd heard about that. "I would have bet on Wanda."

Stark makes a nose of agreement. "I bet she could have given Okoye a run for her money, had she actually kept count."

We fall into companionable silence, the easiest there's ever been between us. I doubt he'll ever fully forgive me for the past, not that I blame him, as I'll never fully forgive myself, brainwashing or no. Still, the scrawny idiots seem to bind us together. Give us common ground. And it makes things a little bit more bearable, for the both of us.

"Coffee?" Stark offers, pushing to his feet. He has dark circles under his eyes, and has to be exhausted, but I can't blame him for not being able to sleep.

"Sure," I say, and follow. And I find that the anxious edge, the one waiting for an enemy around every corner, has dulled almost to the point of relaxation.

Well I'll be damned.

* * *

 **Peter Parker**

" _Hey."_

"MJ? ...It's Peter."

" _I gathered. Smartphones generally let you know who's calling."_

I laugh awkwardly. "Right. SO um...how-how are you?"

Silence. I can practically hear her deadpan expression, and it makes me clutch the phone tighter to my ear.

" _Peachy. How's mono?"_

It's nearly impossible to tell, because MJ is always...well, MJ, but I'm pretty sure I catch the dark sarcasm in her question, as well as the defensive edge in her voice. Like she's expecting me to lie.

I swallow. "MJ...can we talk?"

" _Isn't that what we're doing?"_

"I mean...like, in person? I'm not...not contagious, or anything."

A beat of silence, then her voice, almost sounding uncertain, which is so unlike Michelle, the knots in my stomach double. " _In person? As in, you don't want to do this over the phone?"_

I frown. "Do what?"

" _Are you breaking up with me? Is that what this is?"_ she asks straight out. "' _Can we talk?' Really?"_

"NO! God, no! No, that's not...I just...look, I've missed you like crazy, and I-"

" _Peter, you didn't answer any of my calls. Reply to any of my texts. I'm not stupid, okay? My cousin had mono once, and her thumbs didn't fall off or anything so she couldn't text back. And also, Ned's a terrible liar. So whatever scheme you guys have cooked up-"_

"There's no scheme! I promise! Look, I...can we please just meet up, maybe tomorrow? I don't want to...I mean, on the phone feels...can I just see you? Please."

" _I'm leaving tomorrow."_

"Leaving?"

" _My mom's taking me to a political rally in D.C."_

"Oh. Oh, that's...when will you be back?"

" _I don't know. Whenever the protest ends. I've already gotten the next few weeks of homework, just in case."_

Weeks?

Sweat slips down my neck, and I scrub at it impatiently with my free hand.

" _Whatever it is, can't you just tell me now?"_

MJ's voice is impatient, but I hear what she's not saying anyways. Or at least, I think I do. She knows I've been lying. She knows I'm hiding something big, and I'm not telling her, and it hurt her. She's nervous. I don't know that I've ever seen her nervous. God, I hate that so much. But...to tell her over the phone…?

Nerves prickle all over, knotting deep in my stomach and swelling in my throat. I open my mouth, but the words...they won't come.

" _Ok. I get it."_ There's no mistaking her disappointment. " _I'll see you when I get back. Glad you're feeling better."_

"MJ-MJ, wait!"

There's a click, then silence, and I look down at the phone to see the "End Call" over her picture before it goes back to my home screen. Hurriedly, I call her back. Telling her the truth about me being Spiderman isn't something I wanted to do over the phone, but it beats this.

She doesn't answer.

"Crap," I hiss, pulling the phone from my ear to text her.

I start typing, 'MJ, can we please talk? I promise I'll explain everything."

Nothing. Not for several minutes as I debate the merits of telling her I'm Spiderman through text. Then…

MJ:...

MJ: _I've gotta pack._

I stare at the phone with dismay, running my hand through my hair to pull at the roots. I've messed this up so bad, I've-

MJ:...

MJ:...

MJ: _I'm glad you're okay._

MJ: _Can we talk when I get back?_

I blow out a breath in relief.

Me: Yes. Please.

Me: I really...really missed you.

MJ: _I missed you too._

MJ: _Dork_

A grin splits my face. Then falls a few seconds later. I...think I really screwed that up, that maybe I've screwed everything up by lying to MJ from the start.

Whatever happens, when she gets back, I'm telling her the truth.

No matter what.

* * *

 **Thor Odinson**

I am fond of Midgard and its people. Loki thinks me a fool for it, but his misguided disgust does not damper my affections. I had thought I understood Earth. And it's capabilities. But every time I think so, it seems to surprise me.

I, for one, never saw Wakanda coming.

Of the many countries I have travelled during my time with the Avengers, not one nation has come close to rivalling Asgard, but this one...this one stands a chance of doing so.

I stand with my fellows in solemn rows on the plains of Wakanda, knee high yellow grasses swaying about our calves. Ahead of us, the grass gives way to stone that stretches out a distance away before dropping to sheer cliffs. The roar of mighty waterfalls is the only sound breaking the solemn silence as the last of Earth's sun drops behind the horizon.

Loki to my left, Heimdall to my right, we watch along with the other Avengers as King T'Challa, dressed formally in black and silver robes, a necklace of fangs about his neck, strides forward.

His general, Okoye, stands at his side with the rest of the Dora Milaje. T'Challa's mother and sister wait at the edge of the wide circle formed around him, surrounded by their warrior guards, and beyond them, the people of Wakanda all stand together, garbed in ceremonial dress.

I glance to my right, seeing Wanda's hand clasped tightly in Vision's. Next to the Wakandans, the Avengers look foreign and largely out of place. I'd considered that T'Challa's people might think us intruders on such an occasion, but they'd instead welcomed our presence, perhaps understanding that we, above all, understood what their people had went through under the cruel hands of the Dravec.

My fingers curl into tight fists.

Were I able, I would raise those fiends from the dead to offer them a slower, crueler end, perhaps even handing them to the Wakandans themself to enact their vengeance upon.

I'd mentioned as such to Okoye, seeing in her a kindred warrior flame. She'd shaken her head. "My people have gotten justice. Their murderers are slain, disgraced without burial, burning, or funeral rites. Left to rot like the monsters they are. And what was left of our fallen, we have brought home. To think of the Dravec any more allows them to reign over our hearts, and I will not give them that satisfaction."

"That is noble of you. I will admit myself less so. I am, after all, both Avenger and Revenger."

"Revenger?" She'd raised a brow.

"Yes, well...there wasn't time to think of a better name."

Earlier this day, several animals were slaughtered, as is their custom, and the meat boiled without spices to be consumed by the families of those Dora Milaje taken and killed by the Dravec. The Wakandan princess had been the one to explain the rituals to us, her own father's still fresh in her mind.

Now, we all stand around the hole dug into the earth, torches burning bright as the stars above begin to emerge.

The remains of the Dora Milaje uniform found in the Dravec ship are folded neatly in the king's hands, and he holds them out so hat Okoye's hands join with his beneath the material.

"Buyela e mhlabeni ukulala," says T'Challa, his voice carrying solemnly over the plain.

A few paces away, Natasha murmurs softly, "Return to the earth to sleep."

Together, T'Challa and Okoye lower the uniform into the hole in the ground, kneeling to place it at the bottom. When they rise, Okoye's cheeks are tear stained.

The king gestures to the people waiting on the other side with an outstretched hand. "Abasebenzi ukukunceda uhambe."

Several women come forward, carefully carved walking sticks in their hands that they lower into the ground.

Natasha translates quietly, her voice as gentle as the grasses rustling at our feet. "Staffs to help you go."

"Ukutya kuwe."

"Food for you."

More women come forward, platters and jugs filled to the brim that are added to the collection.

Banner removes his glasses, his fingers brushing at his eyes as Stark places a hand upon his shoulder. Wanda rests her head against Vision's arm, and the boy, Peter, watches the proceedings with wide eyes.

"Izambatho zakho, izixhobo, zakho. Ubutyebi ebomini, sinikela ekufeni."

Clothes, Dora Milaje armor, and personal trinkets are lowered, brought forth by weeping family members.

"Your clothes, your equipment. Wealth in life, we surrender to death."

T'Challa and Okoye now stand alone, and the king kneels to take a handful of earth. He scatters it into the grave as he rises. "Hamba ngoxolo, odade. Phumla ekugqibeleni."

Natasha takes a deep breath. "Go in peace, sisters. Rest in the end."

"Kuze sidibane kwakhona," Okoye says, voice choked with tears as she adds her own handful of soil.

"Until we meet again."

* * *

T'Challa and I clasp forearms, our grips strong as our eyes meet.

"I am grateful to call you friend and ally," I tell him. "Thank you for lending us a ship. Once I find a place for my people, I will be sure to repay you for all that you've done."

"There is no need for that. You are our first alliance among the stars, my friend," T'Challa smiles. "Be sure we will call on you for aid, should the need arise."

"Likewise."

I turn next to Banner, who offers a small, rueful smile and says, "I suppose there's no point in asking you to stick around, huh?"

My arm goes over his shoulder as I guide him toward the awaiting ship. "My people need me. Heimdall assures me they live. However I fear the drunken antics our friend Valkyrie has gotten them into."

Banner snorts. "You'll tell her I'm sorry I couldn't join you guys?"

"Of course. Although I wish you'd reconsider my offer. New Asgard could use a man with your brilliant mind."

"You just want me to come so you have the big guy's extra muscle in case of a fight."

"What? No. Of course not. I told you, I prefer you."

"Uhuh. Make sure you visit now and then, will you?"

"Oh, be sure of it. My return shall be quite a spectacle. I expect Stark to throw the grandest of revels on that day."

A distance away, a newly outfitted and armored Miek walks up the ramp, casting a wave over his shoulder as Korg pats Peter Parker on the hand. The boy flinches, but doesn't stagger.

"Bye then, New Miek," Korg says cheerfully.

"Thanks for everything, Korg," Peter wraps the rocky alien in a hug. "I honestly don't think I would have made it without you."

"No, probably not," agrees Korg. "They would have filleted you like a Norkalian fish, most likely. Lucky for both of us, they didn't, and the revolution was a success. Cheers, man! Have fun avenging and whatnot."

I glance over at Loki, who leans against the ship with his arms folded across his chest, blue eyes trained on Wanda Maximoff and Vision, who are speaking to Heimdall.

Bruce says, "I'll uh, leave you to it then. See you, Thor. Try not to blow up any more worlds, yeah?"

"I'll do my best," I smile at him and pat his back as he heads back to the others. Approaching my brother, I fold my own arms over my chest. "I was barely able to convince them to let you go, Loki. Do not consider what it is you're contemplating."

"And just what do you imagine I am contemplating?"

"Mischief. Chaos. What else?"

Slyness curls the corner of his mouth.

"Brother," I warn.

"Oh relax. I will trifle no more with Midgard or its so called protectors," Loki says, but I hear what he isn't saying out loud anyways.

For now.

"I'd tell you to never attempt to trifle with Wanda Maximoff, or Vision, for that matter, but we both know how fond you are of heeding my warnings, so I won't bother. Besides, I think I will enjoy watching her tear you apart."

Loki snorts derisively, but I catch the gleam in his eyes as he shoots her one last look. "Your faith in me is astounding, brother."

He pushes off the ship to head for the ramp, but is cut off my none other than Steve Rogers. The man is finally back on his feet after recovering from the Dravec poison, and by the fierce look on his face, is also ready for a fight. Loki stiffens.

"Thor," Steve nods towards me, then directs his sharp eyes to my brother. "Loki."

"Captain," Loki nearly croons. "How refreshing to see that even a close brush with death can't take that righteous spark from your eyes."

Steve smiles coldly. "I just wanted to thank you in person for your assistance in saving my life."

Loki practically oozes satisfaction at the sight of Captain America thanking him. I think of warning my brother to tread carefully, but decide to watch his stupidity unfold instead.

"How that must pain you," Loki grins. "To be in my debt, Captain."

"Debt?" Steve raises a brow. "That's a little presumptuous, don't you think? Considering what happened last time you were on Earth?"

"I served my time for that venture."

"A short stint in an Asgardian cell," Rogers scoffs. "Not exactly justice."

"Then why don't you enact your vengeance upon me here and now?'' Loki's arms spread wide. "Come, Captain, I know how desperately you'd like to unleash your might upon me. Go on. I won't even raise a hand to stop you."

Heimdall meets my eyes, and I notice the attentions of the others start to turn towards us. I shake my head. Steve can handle my brother.

"I would," Steve says thoughtfully. "If you were god enough to actually face me in person instead of hiding in the ship behind an illusioned version of yourself."

Loki's eyes narrow. "How-?"

"I've come to learn that a snake might shed its skin, but it's still the same, slinking, slithering beast it was before."

"How poetic."

"I've got another one for you." Steve leans in close to my brother's illusion, and his voice drops so quiet, I can't even make out the words, though I am standing right there. When he's finished, Steve steps back, and Loki's face has gone several shades whiter. My brother's lips press tightly together, and he casts a furious glance at the others before stalking up the ramp.

"What did you say to him?" I ask Steve curiously.

"It's between me and the snake," Rogers says easily. "Stay safe out there, and watch your back. Or your brother may put a knife in it."

"Eh, wouldn't be the first time. Farewell, my friend."

Heimdall and Korg join me up the ramp as I cast my friends and allies a final wave of farewell.

At long last, we return to the stars. To my people. To create a new home for them, for me. But I have not forgotten my quest. Once New Asgard is established, I will continue my search for the infinity stones, the ones I once saw in a vision. And perhaps this time, I won't be alone.

* * *

 **...**

 **...**

 **...**

 **THE END**

 **...**

 **...**

 **...**

* * *

 **MID-CREDITS SCENE:**

 **Ned** **Leeds**

"Don't just throw them in the corner and sleep on your mattress like last time," Mom warns from the kitchen as I trudge to my room with an armful of clean sheets. "I'm not raising a savage."

"God, mom. I won't."

I nudge my door open, resigning myself to having to make my bed.

My jaw drops, and the sheets go tumbling onto the floor with a muffled thump. I think I also whimper.

"Ned, I thought I said not to throw those sheets!"

"S-sorry! I uh… yeah, I'm on it," I say dazedly, kicking the door shut behind me. "Hoooooooooly shiiiiiiiiit."

My room's pretty sweet. I got a bed by the window, a desk set up with my playstation, tv, and computer, and two bean bag chairs that are overly squished from how many times Peter and I have sat in them playing video games together. Then there are the shelves of my extensive Star Wars Lego collection and the posters lining my wall and the door to my closet.

But this? This is new. And _insane._

I look around, eyes nearly popping out of my skull and my mouth still gaping open. Then I try to not freak out and fail miserably.

The desk with my playstation has been moved to the corner, and looks miserably, hilariously small compared to what now takes up the majority of the wall. A sleek black, multileveled desk, with not one, not two, but _four_ monitors set up behind an extensive keyboard, a blue light glowing in between the black keys. The consoles are hid neatly within the confines of the desk, and when I open up the drawer, a gleaming headset rests inside.

"Woah," I breathe, and slip it on, the memory foam cushions fitting comfortably over my ears. "What the fu-"

"Mr. Leeds."

I jump out of my skin, the headset slipping off my head. Squeaking in alarm, I lunge for it before it hits the ground, smacking it up and fumbling with it for a few heart stopping seconds before I put it back on.

Panting slightly, I swallow hard. "Uhhh...hello?"

"You're alone I take it?"

"What? Yeah, I mean yes, I mean...who the hell is this?"

The middle right screen blinks on, light flooding my darkened room, and then my jaw is dropping towards the ground again as I start gaping like a fish.

"Y-You're Tony Stark!" I gasp out in disbelief.

"You're the guy in the chair," Tony Stark, seated at his own desk, raises a brow at me.

A squeak gets swallowed up in my throat. Oh my god. Is this really happening?

"Er yes. I mean, yes sir. I'm...yeah. Peter's...guy...in the chair," I trail off, realizing how ridiculous it sounds saying it out loud in front of Tony freaking Stark. Then it hits me. " _You_ did all this?"

"That I did."

" _Why?"_ I blink. "I mean, don't get me wrong, this is freaking awesome, and talking to you, like, wow. I'm a huge fan. But what is it for? Am I coming to work for Stark Industries? Am I gonna be an intern too? Is this the set up to a top secret base for Peter to sneak into because he can't have the entrance at his apartment-"

"Wow, this is spiralling quick. Yeah, hi. I'm gonna talk for awhile, cool?"

"C-cool."

Mr. Stark sits back in his chair, steepling his hands together and looking confident and so badass. "Mr. Parker's told me a lot about you."

"He...he has?"

"And as I understand it, you were crucial in the efforts to prevent Adrian Toomes's heist of the Avengers equipment on moving day."

"Uh.."

"Look, I can watch out for Peter here in the compound, and his A.I. is with him in his suit. But in case you haven't noticed, your buddy likes to get himself in precarious situations. Can't hurt to have another set of eyes watching his back," Mr. Stark raises a brow again. "If you're gonna be his guy in the chair, if you're gonna be backing him up, you're gonna need an upgrade."

Freaking out. I am freaking the hell out.

"So this...it's all for me?" My voice gets so high pitched I nearly cringe. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. Put it to good use, Mr. Leeds. I'm counting on you."

Do not pass out. Do not pass out. Do not-

"Oh, and one more thing."

"Y-yeah?"

He sets stern eyes on me. "Use any of this tech to go behind my back to help Peter in one of his idiotic schemes, or to try to hack into things you shouldn't, i.e. _my_ things, all of this will go away faster than you can say, ' _It's a trap'._ Capiche?"

"Capiche. Yes. Anything. I won't let you down," I promise earnestly.

"Glad we understand each other. Happy trails."

The screen goes black. I can see my stunned face reflected in the monitor, and have to take a few deep, disbelieving breaths. Then it hits me, and I'm grinning so hard my face feels like it might split open. I spin in my seat, throwing up my hands in victory.

"Guy in the chair."

* * *

 **...**

 **...**

 **...**

 **END CREDITS SCENE:**

 **Gamora**

"You're taking us _where?"_ I snap, whipping around in my seat, panic and fury welding my spine straight.

Even Rocket turns his head so fast I hear a crack in his neck. "It was a joke. He's joking, right Quill?" Rocket winks at him, fangs bared with all the subtlety of a volcanic eruption.

"What? No, I'm not joking," Peter looks at us with an incredulous look on his face. "Did you not hear how much they're gonna pay us for this job?"

I unbuckle the straps across my chest and push to my feet, storming up to him. "Turn us around. Now."

"Woah, relax." Peter raises a brow and gives me one of the smiles he thinks is so charming. "And weren't you the one who insisted on the rule, no unbuckling during hyperspeed?"

My hand shoots out to grip the shoulder of his chair so fast he flinches, eyes going wide. "If you don't turn this ship around right this second, I'm going to-"

"I am groot."

"Groot!" Rocket exclaims, disgusted. "That is _not_ what she was going to say. Where the hell did you even hear that garbage?"

"I am groot."

Drax laughs as Rocket levels a glare at him. The raccoon snaps, "Hey! Let's not be teaching the moody teenager more shit that's gonna bite us in the ass later, shall we? That was disgusting."

"I like teenage Groot. He thinks all my jokes are funny."

"I am groot."

Rocket whirls on him, but Groot doesn't look up from his video game. "What did you just say to me? So help me, I will come back there and show you what funny is-"

"Enough!" I shout over them. "Peter!"

"Alright! Jesus!" Quill gives me a look like I'm being completely unreasonable as he holds his hands up in surrender. "Can we just talk about this?"

"There's nothing to talk about. We are _not_ going into Dravec territory. Have you lost your mind? Don't you know who they are? What they've done?"

"So they've kidnapped a few people. Big deal. Who hasn't?"

"On my planet," Drax says. "We would kidnap the unwed females of an enemy tribe and-"

"Drax! Not in front of Groot!"

"What? I was just going to say-"

"We are here," Mantis intones, leaning forward in her seat.

I whirl, and the rainbow of cosmic light flying past us dissipates into inky black space, broken up only by a handful of feeble stars, a cold, distant sun, and an ominous planet waiting for us.

My blood turns icy, and we all look out as one, leaning forward to take it in. The hair on the back of my neck rises, and I hold my breath, eyes searching for the legendary warship of the most feared predators in the universe.

Except…

"What the hell?" Rocket says. "Did someone beat us to it?"

I want to snap at him that of course not, no one is stupid enough to take on the Dravec except us apparently, except the evidence before me says something different. Debris floats idly by our ship, chunks of metal plates and glittering clouds of glass, broken cases and scraps of shattered weaponry...and bodies. Pieces of them.

A Dravec arm hits the windshield with a muffled thud, its wrist blade gleaming in our spotlights as it slowly slides up and over our ship.

"Great!" Peter throws up his hands. "You jinxed us."

I don't respond. I'm too busy scanning the horizon for whoever, or whatever did this. The only being powerful enough that I know of to take on the Dravec and live is…

"Jinxed?" asks Mantis, antenna quivering curiously.

"Yes, jinxed. Gamora made a fuss, and now someone took the Dravec out before we could get here, and now the Nova Corps ain't gonna pay us squat."

"Not necessarily true," says Rocket with a sly smile. "Whoever did it left in a hurry, which means we can still swing this in our favor, if you get what I mean."

Drax frowns. "You want to swing the arm of the dead Dravec around to gain favor?"

"No, you gray idiot. I'm saying we collect some of this junk and take it back as proof that we did the job ourselves. Dravec get dead. We get paid. No one's the wiser."

"I like it," Peter says.

"What's not to like? I'm brilliant."

"You mean, lie?" Mantis frowns.

"Well, it wouldn't exactly be a lie," Peter adds. "We tell them the Dravec kicked it, which they did, and we collect the money. We did fly all the way out here and need to be compensated for our trouble."

Rocket turns in his seat. "Great. Go suit up and gather Dravec pieces."

"Hey, don't you be givin' me orders, pal. I'm the captain of this ship. _You_ go dig through the trash. Isn't that your specialty?"

Drax lets out a boisterous laugh. "Hahaha, he is referring to the time he called you a trash panda!"

"I'm aware!" Rocket snaps. The raccoon's fur rises as he bares his teeth.

"Stop it, both of you," I say quietly. And miraculously, they shut up. "I don't like it."

"Oh come on," Peter rises. "You didn't like it when they were alive and waiting for us, and now you're unhappy they're dead?"

"The Dravec have been feared all over the galaxy for centuries. Centuries, Quill. Now their corpses are strung across the stars like they were nothing more than prey," I say, my voice growing sharper. "Whatever killed them was stronger. That should scare you."

"Yeah, well, it doesn't."

I roll my eyes, fiercely questioning why I got saddled with the biggest idiots in the entire universe.

But there is one encouraging thought in all this. Whoever killed the Dravec...it can't be... _him._ Not when those warrior predators aided his agenda of balancing out the universe by weeding out the strong and leaving the weak to be cut down like grass.

"I say we go down to the surface of the planet," says Drax. "See if there were any left for us to kill. My body is ready...for violence."

"Thank you for finishing that sentence," Peter mutters.

Rocket shakes his head. "Why would we do that when we get all the crap floating around, ripe for the taking?"

"I am groot."

I look at Groot along with everyone else, surprised that he'd torn himself away from the video game long enough to contribute to this conversation.

"Groot has a point," Peter says, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "If there's anymore Dravec alive on the planet, them showing up later would look pretty bad on our part if we go tell the Nova Corps that we wiped them all out."

"Alright, alright," Rocket concedes, messing with the controls to take us into the planet's atmosphere. "If you're gonna be logical about it."

Reluctantly, I get back in my seat, spine rigid with tension. I don't like this plan, not at all, but it seems I've been outvoted. My palms itch for my swords, and I silently vow that if there are any Dravec still alive on that planet, I will kill them before they kill my idiot team.

That pleasure is mine alone.

* * *

"I am groot."

"Yeah, no kidding," Peter says as he kicks a chunk of still smoking debris.

"What happened?" Mantis asks, awed and horrified by the smoldering remains of a vicious battle strewn across the grassy plains framed by jungle.

"The Dravec got their asses handed to them, that's what," Peter answers her, stepping over one of the corpses. "Damn."

"Whoever massacred them must have been exceedingly powerful," Drax nods, knives drawn as he surveys our surroundings.

"Who could have done this?" Mantis's antennae quiver. She starts to reach for one of the Dravec bodies, then thinks better of it and shies away.

"Well, I mean we could have," says Peter. "Easily. We just didn't get here first."

I roll my eyes skyward. If we'd gotten here first, we would have been outnumbered and overpowered and slaughtered. But there's no use saying it out loud. Quill's pride isn't worthing arguing over. Instead, I kneel by one of the bodies, examining the arrow sticking out of its throat.

Plucking it out, I eye the make of it, the foreign metal arrowhead painted black, likely to avoid catching the sunlight. I lower my hand and look around. "This wasn't done by one person."

"You think the Nova Corps set us against another team?" Qull asks worriedly. "To see who would get there first?"

"No," I shake my head. "I don't think so."

"Good, because otherwise we'd be wasting time here while the other team collects the bounty."

"I am groot."

"Yeah, where did Rocket get off to anyways? We need to start hauling some of this shit to the ship," Peter glances around.

Worry clenches my gut, and I am instantly alert, swords drawn. "Damn it. I told him not to go wandering off on his own."

"Since when does Rocket listen to anyone?"

Movement flickers in my peripheral, and I whirl, blades pointed towards the threat. Behind me, I hear the others draw their own weapons.

A metal hand reaches over the edge of the hillside, fingers stretching up as if in surrender, or in a request for aid. I go rigid, muscles tensing to charge as the hand raises higher, revealing a metal plated wrist and forearm.

"What the hell?" Quill mutters beneath his helmet.

A burst of hysterical laughter reaches my ears before the rest of the arm raises into view, held with two paws by Rocket, whose face is scrunched up with hilarity. "You should see...your faces!" he bursts, sniggering and wiping his eyes as he waves the metal arm around.

"Damn it, Rocket!"

"That wasn't funny! We could have killed you!"

He chortles. "Yeah. Okay! Sure! I'm quaking over here."

Fuming, I go to turn away, but then frown as I look at the metal arm closer. "Where did you find that?"

"In the trees over there next to one of the bodies."

"That's...that's no Dravec arm."

"No, I'm guessing it's from one of the suckers who kicked their asses," Rocket agrees, tucking the metal, muscled appendage beneath his own arm. He starts chuckling. "Can you imagine? Some guy is just wandering around...with ONE ARM."

The air is filled with the raccoon's hysterical laughter as he clutches his prize to his chest and pats his own back with it. I grimace with distaste as Quill rolls his eyes and yells for the others to start loading up the ship so we can get the hell out of here.

"Let me see that," I sheathe my swords and reach for the arm.

Rocket jerks away. "Get your own!"

My patience snaps, and I pluck the metal arm out of the raccoon's grip and hold it up so I can see it, ignoring his tirade of curses and protests. I run my fingers over the smooth metal and frayed wires, frowning at the small logo imprinted almost invisibly at the seams of one of the plates, as if whoever made it wanted it hidden.

"Stark Industries," I mutter. Then it's torn from my grip as Rocket glares at me, holding his prize far from my reach.

"Go get your own arm," he growls, then slings it over his shoulder and stalks towards the ship. "This one's allllll mine."

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **"Yeah, I'll get that arm."**

 **I LOVED Bucky and Rocket's interaction in Infinity War, and so the whole reason I had Bucky's arm ripped off in the first place was so that Rocket could finally get his arm. XD XD XD XD**

 **DUDES THIS IS THE END! I CAN'T BELIEVE WE MADE IT! THREE STORIES IN THE SERIES DONE! WOW!**

 **It is beyond hard dealing with such a massive cast of characters, so I hope I did everyone justice and resolved everything that needed resolution. lol.**

 **I hope this extra long chapter (THE LONGEST I HAVE EVER WRITTEN) makes up for the time it took for me to write it. You guys will no doubt be pleased to hear that I already have quite a bit, including the first couple chapters, already written for the next book in the series, Hunted. Which I will try to post soon! So make sure you guys add me to your Followed Author pages, so you get the notification when I start posting that new story. And if you haven't already, please favorite this story if you enjoyed it, and let me know what you thought of this chapter and this ride in a review down below!**

 **I CANNOT freaking believe how many reviews and follows this story has gotten. I am truly thankful and unbelievably blessed by you guys. So a HUGE THANK YOU for sticking around and being the best review squad a girl could have.**

 **NONE OF THIS WOULD EXIST OR BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT THE INCREDIBLE PIPPINSTRANGE! She is the world's best beta, the inspiration for this series, and where I go to read the best Marvel fanfics on the entire site. If you haven't read her work, GO NOW! Where They Go is the balm my soul needed after Infinity War, Marvel's the Departed is an INTENSE AND GLORIOUS AND INCREDIBLE AND DRAMATIC ride that IS SO IN CHARACTER it should be canon, and her newest fic turned me into a fangirling puddle like nothing has ever before. Not to mention Down Came the Rain was what inspired me to write Spiderman and Avengers fanfiction! LOVE YOU BETA!**

 **COMING UP:**

 **So usually this bit is at the end of the author's note and describes the next chapter, but since this is the last chapter, I thought I would include it here to give you an idea of what to expect in the next story. PippinStrange and I were talking, and scale wise, Paint it Black was like Winter Soldier, Silent Night was like Civil War, and Riders in the Sky was like an Avengers movie. So, if I were to compare Hunted in that regard, it would be most like Spiderman: Homecoming, in the way that we are once again focusing largely on Peter Parker, though there will be PLENTY of other characters in the mix as well. This story takes place shortly after the events of Riders, with Peter dealing with the aftermath of all he's been through, and a new villain hot on his heels. Oh, and did I mention there will be a wedding? ;) You guys have already picked up on some foreshadowing that hints at what is to come, and I am so excited to start sharing it with you. This will ALSO be a very, very, very belated birthday fic to none other than PippinStrange! You guys are gonna love it! Peter Parker isn't done being hunted yet. Mwuhahahaha**

 **AS ALWAYS, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR REVIEWS AND SUPPORT! IT IS SO INSPIRING! I'D LOVE LOVE LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS CHAPTER AND THE EXTRA SPECIAL END CREDITS SCENE. ;)**

* * *

Review Replies:

sparklydog9: Lucky for our Avengers, no Dravec king to contend with. ;)

DarylDixon'sLover: Bucky's there! Just not in the foreground in the last chapter

monkeybaby: I KNOW IM SO MEAN

SvalbardGirl" I'm sorrry! I'm so mean! Lol! Thank you so much! Lots of peter in this chapter and LOTS more for him in the next installment.

Mojomonster: I KNOW I AM SO SORRY! LOL! Thank you so much! I'm glad to hear how much you enjoyed it! LOTR references are soooo fun

HuffleCat: Ah thank you! And one of the upcoming fics most certainly will. ;)

JustAFemaleGeek: :D :D :D :D :D :D

Heroes21: LOL! BEST HASHTAG EVER XD. Also LOL! Your second review! XD You will see, my friend, you will seee.

JustAnotherFan57: OMG wow, thank you so so so much! Reading that made me so happy!

PippinStrange: DUDE THANK YOU OMG! IM SO GLAD YOU ARE MY BETA I COULD NOT DO THIS WITHOUT YOU! THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!

LoonyLovegood1981: I did! I hope the long chapter made it worth it!

syed: He did, but he turned into the Hulk, so that alien cache got lost in the jungle when he transformed, and they didn't know Steve was poisoned until they got on the ship.

niyah606: LOL! Sorry, bruh, I promise not to do it again...for a little while at least. ;) I love Scott too!

cargumentluv: Was that enough? :D

64Felicity: Thanks so much! I know I am way too attached to my cliffhangers

Krystal Fox: Nice name, first of all. ;) Thank you so much!

KiernanCo: Thank you very much! I am feeling much better!

gandalf537: DUDE THANK YOU

WolfsHonor: I'm sorry! LOL! I can't help myself. And I'm glad you liked the Dravec Queen! She was a last minute addition. ;)

seireidoragon: It really doesn't! lol! Yay for Aunt May reunions!

MewWinx96: Thank you!

xSapphirexRosesxFanx: Thanks!

Tightpants182: OMG thank you for reviewing, and welcome aboard to the review squad! I fangirled so hard reading your reaction to my series. I am so so so so happy to hear how much you have enjoyed it so far! There is definitely lots to come!

EleanorGardner: I KNOW! IM SORRY! LOL!

RedHood001: Always adore reading your reviews and all your favorite bits throughout the chapter. Seriously makes me so happy. I fangirl so hard and it just puts the biggest smile on my face. :D :D :D THANK YOU SO MUCH!

lucyolympus17: I know XD And I really liked that series! It's been a long time since I've read them, but when I did, I enjoyed them very much!

curry-llama: KORG IS LIFE! LOL! I was sad to see him go. He was such a delight to write.

Little-warrior2: I KNOW I AM SO SORRY! I WILL NEVER ABANDON I PROMISE!

maili-chan: Wow. Your review SERIOUSLY made my day. Thank you so much for putting so much thought into it and saying such wonderful things about my writing! It means so much to me! Thank you for being part of my review squad and I look forward to hearing your thoughts and seeind you in the next one! And I maybe did give you a hint with Tony needing rescuing. ;)

* * *

 **That's it, dear readers! You've reached the end of Riders in the Sky! Hunted will be released soon, and though I haven't had any time to work on My Country 'tis of Thee, I hope to get going on that one again soon as well. THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR STICKING WITH YOU! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!**

 **See you in Hunted. ;)**


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